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Gen Z, Socialism, and the System That Failed Them – Steve Cortes

“Gen Z isn’t embracing socialism because they dream of five-year plans. They’re listening because the ‘capitalism’ they were sold was already broken—rigged for insiders, punishing for everyone else.

“They’ve been:
• Systematically lied to, about major issues
• Shut out of real opportunity
• Raised in an economy designed to reward incumbents, not strivers.”

State pilot program will pay unhoused students $500 a month to go to school – KRQE Albuquerque

Students in need were paid $500 a month to stay in school. It worked. – msn/WaPost

“The payment program was pioneered by New Mexico Appleseed, a child poverty nonprofit that first tested the initiative in 2020. Only 51 percent of the state’s homeless students had graduated the year before, but in the test cohort, 13 of 14 seniors graduated — a 93 percent rate.

‘Now, leaders in New Mexico — which in 2023 had the highest child poverty rate in the nation and has about 10,000 homeless students — hope to test that success at Mayfield High and about a dozen other districts with a three-year pilot program. The initiative is the first of its kind, advocates say, and could become a national model for improving academic outcomes for homeless students.”

NWSLPA files grievance against league on Trinity Rodman contract offer – msn/ESPN

“At stake is the future of the NWSL’s biggest star and the league’s salary cap structure. Rodman’s previous contract was set to expire at the end of the month, and her impending decision was the focal point around the NWSL and its recent championship match in which she and the Washington Spirit participated…

“ESPN previously reported that Rodman has received multiple offers from European clubs that exceeded what NWSL teams could pay her due to the league’s salary cap. The cap in 2025, after adjustments for revenue sharing, was $3.5 million.”

Challenge: Identify examples of capitalism and socialism in the ‘Venn diagram’ of ways that the US women’s soccer league attempts to balance competition and cooperation among its own teams and players, and with foreign competitors. (Good luck.)

China has brought millions out of poverty. The US has not – by choice – Eduardo Porter/Guardian

“Despite the US’s economic success, income inequality remains breathtaking. But this is no glitch – it’s the system.”

“The poor’s share of the US economic pie is shrinking to developing-world levels. The income of Americans in the top 90th percentile of wealth grew more than twice as fast between 2000 and 2023 as that of Americans in the bottom 10th percentile. These days, Americans in the poorest 10th of the population draw about 1.8% of the nation’s income, about the same as poor Bolivians. In Nigeria, they reap 3%, in China 3.1%, in Bangladesh 3.7%…”

Jeff Bezos’s Very Own Editorial Page – American Prospect

“Shortly after he installed some longtime Rupert Murdoch polemicists to the top posts at The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos—the paper’s sole owner—also announced that the paper’s editorial pages would no longer feature a diversity of viewpoints, but become instead a megaphone for laissez-faire capitalism…”

Admiral who oversaw deadly boat strike appears in Congress – msn/WSJ

Family of victim in alleged Trump ‘drug boat’ killings files first formal complaint – Guardian

Family of man slain in a US boat strike in the Caribbean lodges complaint – Al Jazeera

“Family of Colombian fisherman Alejandro Carranza say his right to life was violated in US ‘narco-terrorist’ strikes.“

If killing defenseless people on Caribbean speed boats presents moral and legal problems for the US, multiply by 1,000 and look carefully at what Israel is doing with billions of $$ of US military aid in Gaza.

How Trump’s trillion-dollar war machine enriches the 1% – Popular Information

They could be a start:

Michael and Susan Dell donate $6.25 billion to encourage families to claim ‘Trump Accounts’ – AP

But there’s a long way to go. CCSE analysis of ‘Trump account’ legislation:

‘Trump kids accounts’ in budget bill would drive up inequality and raise the national debt

“…Congress should go back to the drawing board and develop savings and investment vehicles that include all Americans, including young people capable of making financial decisions. Unfair gaps in existing programs should be fixed before new ones are created. Financial security systems subsidized by taxpayers should dampen growing inequality and not add fuel to the fire.”

Click here for one way to set up a universal savings and investment system.

In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost – NBC

Young Men Refuse to Fight in the Hunger Games Economy – John Ehrett/Commonplace

“…Getting the diagnosis correct is the first step. Randomness and chance are, of course, facts of life. But the economy—and society as a whole—should not be experienced as a perpetual casino where success and failure become untethered from rational decision-making. The ‘gales of creative destruction’ can sometimes blow too fiercely. And a humane conservatism—one that truly cares for the well-being of our nation’s young people—must take this to heart.”

2,000 Des Moines area UnityPoint nurses to vote on unionization this month – Iowa Capital Dispatch

“Alano De La Rosa, the principal officer for Teamsters Local 90, which includes the Des Moines area and reaches into many other Iowa counties, said nurses will be able to negotiate with the full force of the Teamsters Union behind them. This includes a $400 million national strike fund, he said…”

A pregnant worker in a warehouse needs a bathroom break…

Fighting for Amazon’s Employees: Lawsuits and Organizing – Power At Work Blogcast

This episode delves into two lawsuits brought by New Jersey’s Attorney General alleging Amazon has broken the laws protecting its workers, as well as Teamsters Union efforts to organize Amazon delivery drivers and others.

Virginia Democrats are poised to take the reins. Here’s what’s on the General Assembly’s docket. – Virginian-Pilot

“Democrats, who will enjoy a trifecta, holding the governor’s mansion and majorities in both chambers of the legislature come January, have filed familiar bills on progressive policies such as raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2028 and paid family and sick leave. Undeterred by Democratic majorities, some Republicans have begun to introduce legislation lowering taxes and expanding law enforcement powers…”

CCSE work on paid sick days:

All Workers Should Have A Few Paid Sick Days. The President And Congress Can Make It Happen – Health Affairs

What about a few paid sick days? Are low-wage workers simply invisible to Virginia’s elected leaders?

Measuring the space between poverty and a middle-class income for families raising kids:

An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point. – msn/WaPost

“The U.S. poverty line, the number that the Department of Health and Human Services says is necessary to keep a family out of poverty, is $32,150 for a family of four. Green says it should be more than four times that — a figure that would mean the majority of American households are living ‘in poverty,’ by his metric…

“’…This is unfortunately very much the lived experience for people who are trapped in that valley of death,’ Green said, the term he applied for when people earn too much to qualify for benefits like food stamps and Medicaid, but too little in his view to afford necessities. He sees that ‘valley’ as being inhabited by people earning between about $40,000 and $100,000, or even more in high-cost areas…

“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s state-by-state Living Wage Calculator says that in Maryland, for instance, two working adults with two children need an income of $129,572 to afford food, child care, housing, transportation and other expenses. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute says that for a ‘modest but adequate standard of living,’ a family needs $139,524 to pay for housing, child care, health care, food and transportation in the D.C. metro area, or a little over $100,000 in Birmingham, Alabama, or Cleveland, or $84,019 in El Paso.”

So… Congress: How about those ACA exchange subsidies and where to put the cap?

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Why Substituting Cash for Insurance Can Drive Up Both Total Costs and Individual Medical + Financial Risk – Statement to US Senate Finance Committee

Submitted to Finance Committee Hearing: “The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for All Americans”

“No matter how many adjustments the government might make, giving people money to leave the risk pool and bargain on their own with the players in health system undermines the basic concept of insurance – which is pooling risk and resources to make hard-to-predict future expenses more affordable.”

At least two think tanks are holding meetings this month on how to address Social Security’s financing shortfall.

A ‘conservative/progressive’ path to negotiating Social Security solvency: Bend the cost curve, grow revenue, and protect low earners – Karl Polzer/IQInk

Updated Oct. 8, 2025

“This paper presents options – some favored by conservatives, others by progressives – as a framework for negotiating an equitable solution to Social Security’s financing shortfall.  Taken together, the changes could generate up to twice as much in savings and revenue as needed to balance Social Security’s books…

“Congress could strike a deal drawing about half the savings needed to fix Social Security through a gradual benefit reduction by changing the formula for determining initial benefit levels while protecting the lowest earners.  The rest of the gap could be filled through tax increases.  These financing options provide room for targeted benefit improvements to help the lowest income pay their bills and families raise children.”

Judge says Trump administration ‘used antisemitism as a smokescreen’ against Harvard – USA Today

Trump Administration’s Cuts to Harvard Funding Are Unconstitutional, Judge Rules – msn/WSJ

CCSE correspondence with Harvard President Garber

“Prediction: Harvard University will be teaching students from all over the world long after what remains of Trump and his brain trust rest in silence beneath the ground. BTW, White House staff could benefit from taking free public finance courses at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Harvard has a positive fund balance. The United State government, not so much.”

No peace, no prize. – Karl Polzer

“Republican members of the US Congress, which is financing Israel’s now escalating ethnic cleansing of Gaza, have nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.  It is hard to fathom the depth and irony of their fawning depravity.  The Nobel prize is clearly a trophy that he covets. But shouldn’t a peace prize have something to do with reducing conflict and killing? The US president and Congress, including a majority of Democrats, are doing the opposite of making peace.  They are facilitating Israel’s daily, systematic killing, starvation, and displacement of entire populations of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank…”

Trump ‘1-2 punch’ shifts tax burden from top onto middle-and lower-income Americans – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“Economists and business analysts increasingly agree that Trump’s tariffs are raising prices. There is far less awareness that the historic spike in tariffs – coupled with the tax cuts just made permanent by Congress – comprise a major shift in the tax burden. Taken together, these two changes promise to make the US tax system more regressive. In our increasingly unequal country, taxpayers at the bottom of the economic pecking order are taking on proportionally more of the tax burden as the well-off shoulder less…”

New capitalism III: Capital – Branko Milanovic

“Why is capital so concentrated and why so few have it?”

“The new capitalism has even in the rich countries failed to produce what Margaret Thatcher, and Friedrich Hayek before her, called ‘property-owning society’. (For good measure, Thatcher added ‘democracy’ too.) Even when we include income from forced savings that becomes pension wealth, between one-half and almost 90 percent of the population in rich countries are financial-capital destitute. That percentage becomes more than 90, or even more than 95, in less developed countries…”

Related CCSE work:

Half of Americans have no retirement savings — here’s how Congress can look after them …. op-ed

How the U.S. Retirement Saving System Magnifies Inequality – Society of Actuaries

Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s revenue. Revitalizing its tax base could help restore solvency without cutting benefits.

New Capitalism in America: Richest capitalists and richest workers are increasingly the same people – Global Inequality

Branko Milanovic: The World Under Capitalism – Stone Center/Toronto Public Library

Prof. Milanovic discusses two types of capitalism – “liberal capitalism” in the US and “political capitalism” directed by the Chinese Communist Party. Both systems have produced relatively high levels of income inequality.

Comparing United States and China by Economy – Statistics Times

2025 Social Security groundhog day:

US needs $28 trillion more over 75 years to pay promised benefits

“A few months after the Trump Administration chain-sawed Social Security’s leadership and staff, four newly installed senior officials overseeing the program released the annual report on its declining financial condition.  This year’s actuarial forecast is a bit gloomier due in large part to a benefit expansion enacted by the previous Congress.  However, in the big picture, not much has changed.  Social Security’s looming insolvency remains…

“As I have pointed out to the Senate Budget Committee, the process of spending down Social Security reserves already is increasing overall federal spending and pushing up annual deficits. Drawing down reserves in the Social Security trust funds requires the Treasury to sell bonds (or find other sources of revenue) to raise cash to pay the program’s 74 million beneficiaries.

“On pp. 51-52, this year’s report estimates that Social Security will draw down $181 billion from the combined trust funds in 2025 with the amount rising to $405 billion in 2033. As a result, the federal government is gradually moving to finance part of the program’s benefits through newly issued debt substituting for now-insufficient payroll taxes...”

More on these issues can be found in these CCSE articles and testimony:

‘Trump kids accounts’ in budget bill would drive up inequality and raise the national debt – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“Helping young people learn how to save and build up money for college and adult life are worthy goals. But new ‘Trump kids accounts’ embedded in the massive Republican tax and spending bill before the US Senate not only duplicate existing programs.  They also would widen financial gaps between families in our already very unequal country.  In addition, tax subsidies for money invested in Trump accounts would go mostly to well-off families and push up the national debt…”

Failure to prosecute and jail law-breaking employers is wasting $$ billions in the fight against illegal immigration – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“The federal government has had authority since 1986 to criminally prosecute individuals and companies employing workers not legally in the United State, but it has rarely used that authority regardless of the administration in office. A one-year snapshot taken during Trump’s first term found that no company was criminally prosecuted for having workers not authorized to be in the country, a Syracuse University study shows…

“Changing the equation to incentivize employers to help enforce, rather than skirt, the nation’s immigration laws does not mean subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment.  No need to suspend billionaires and entrepreneurs in cages from a tower or use branding irons.  It does mean applying and stiffening laws against hiring illegals and tax avoidance.  Financial penalties, public shaming, and loss of contracts could be a start.  If that isn’t sufficient, start putting law-breaking employers in jail.  They are lining their pockets by stealing jobs from American workers, both native born and those immigrating legally.”

Thanks to the Virginian-Pilot for running our op-ed:

Many questions, few answers about exempting tips from taxes – Karl Polzer/Virginian-Pilot

“Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to exempt tipped income from state taxes — like President-elect Donald Trump’s on a national level — could help some low-wage workers.  However, it also poses risks for others and raises complex issues facing scrutiny as the state legislature begins its work…”

To provide access to all readers (the newspaper’s op-eds are gated), below is the original submission including links to sources:

Youngkin pitch to exempt tips from taxes could benefit some.  A better option is raising the $2.13 tipped minimum wage.

Statement to 11/20/24 US House Appropriations Committee hearing on Social Security:

A way to ensure Social Security can meet short- and long-term promises to American workers and their families: Bend the cost curve, grow revenue, and protect lower earners – CCSE

“As keeper of the federal government’s purse strings, the House Appropriations Committee plays a part in maintaining Social Security’s commitment to American workers, their families, and taxpayers.  First, Committee members can weigh in as Congress and the Treasury find hundreds of billions of dollars annually in cash outside the appropriations process to draw down Social Security reserves.  The Committee can also help ‘leave room’ in future budgets for revenue increases that might be necessary to keep Social Security solvent as it coordinates with House Ways & Means, Budget, and other Committees on tax and spending issues.”

A ‘conservative/progressive’ path to Social Security solvency: bend the benefit cost curve, grow revenue, and protect lower earners – CCSE

The next President and Congress will face daunting fiscal issues.  In the shadow of historic levels of national debt, lawmakers will be bargaining over trillions of dollars of taxes and spending as they deal with expiration of the Trump tax cuts.  On top of that loom major Social Security financing gaps.   Paying promised benefits will require the government to raise more than $2 trillion in cash over the next eight years and more than $24 trillion to achieve long-run solvency.

This paper presents policy options – some favored by conservatives, others by progressives – as a framework for negotiating a solution.  Taken together, the changes could generate more than twice as much in savings and revenue than needed to balance Social Security’s books. 

Four ‘low-budget’ ways Congress can help working-class families raise more children – Karl Polzer/ Washington Examiner op-ed

– Expand the child tax credit to help more working-class parents and grandparents raising kids.
– Provide Social Security credit for unpaid work raising young children.
– Update/improve SSI so more people with disabilities can work, save.
– If taxes must go up, hold the working poor harmless.

Click here for longer version including references and related articles.

It’s Social Security ‘groundhog day’ as trustees repeat annual forecast of declining finances

“…The trustees’ report, however, neglects to mention how Social Security already is impacting the overall federal budget.  As pointed out to the Senate Budget Committee, the mechanics of spending down Social Security’s reserves require the Treasury to draw funds from general revenue and issue new debt to the public.  As a result, Social Security is gradually and organically moving to paying for current benefits through debt substituting for now-insufficient payroll taxes that it traditionally relies on.”

Missing the obvious: life expectancy in the U.S. is closely related to income – Karl Polzer

“The underlying theory is simple:  More income and wealth allow people and governments to support more years of life.  Fewer resources put them at a disadvantage.  Some politicians who see the connection may be leery of talking about it.  Doing so would lead to awkward questions about improving working and living conditions for millions of Americans and dealing with growing economic inequality.

“The strong relationship between income and longevity is clear when comparing states… (E)ight of the nine states with the lowest median household income also are among the bottom nine in longevity.  Similar clustering occurs comparing the highest ranked states across the two categories. Seven of the nine states with the highest median household income also are among the top nine in life expectancy.   

“Realizing they are rowing in the same economic boat could prompt states to join forces on policy changes, particularly Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, New Mexico, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and others ranking at or near the bottom…

“Presidential candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley strongly proposes raising the program’s retirement age on the premise that increased life spans are undermining Social Security’s long-term solvency.  If long-held assumptions about longevity were challenged, and potential losses to low-income workers and low-income states caused by raising the eligibility age came to light, would she change her position?  Republican candidate Donald Trump, by the way, opposes cuts in Social Security as do most Democrats…”

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for running this op-ed:

Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible – Washington Examiner

For longer version with references, see:

Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible.  Now for the political energy to get it done. – Karl Polzer/CCSE

Previous work on this issue:

One way to make living easier in Virginia – letter to WaPost

Yes, raise the minimum wage, but don’t stop there – op-ed

Analysis: Considerations on Raising the U.S. Minimum Wage To Help Workers and Families While Minimizing Negative Impacts

The US should take a hard look at the Netanyahu government’s brutality before giving it more weapons – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“More Americans are rightly asking if Israel could neutralize Hamas without massive destruction and loss of civilian life.  Indiscriminate air attacks by the Netanyahu regime already have killed and injured tens of thousands of Gazans with no end to the violence in sight.  To put this in perspective, imagine how Washington, D.C., would look if a foreign government with the power to fence in the District of Columbia dropped a comparable number of bombs here while shutting off access to water and food and destroying most of the capital area’s housing and medical system.  UN officials say conditions in Gaza are catastrophic.”

Thanks to the Washington Post for publishing our letter to the editor:

One way to make living easier in Virginia – Karl Polzer/letter to WaPost

“Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) told reporters he is ‘concerned about the cost of living in Virginia and we’re continuing to evaluate how best to address that,’ as reported in the Nov. 26 Metro article ‘Budget battle looms in Virginia. Facing a tighter fiscal environment and Democratic control of the legislature, Mr. Youngkin and fellow Republicans could help working families without denting the budget by making an expected Democratic push for a higher minimum wage a bipartisan affair.

“The GOP has been trying to attract more minority and working-class voters. However, party leaders have stopped short of addressing core economic issues, such as supporting higher wages and better benefits, and mainly stress cultural issues…”

Background Information on these issues provided to Virginia legislators

McCarthy & Co. offer themselves up on the cross to help motivate lazy poor people back to work

Work requirements are a policy failure: Why are they still an option? – The Hill

Thanks to the Washington Post for running our letter:

“Letting Americans Down”

“How can House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), President Biden and Senate leaders claim to represent the working class and poor when Medicaid work requirements are a focal point in the debt ceiling standoff and the Trump-era tax cuts are not? According to the Congressional Budget Office, the work requirements in the Limit, Save, Grow Act would have a tiny impact (about $5.6 billion in fiscal 2025) on the nation’s $31.4 trillion national debt, but they would increase the number of uninsured and state costs and have no effect on hours worked by Medicaid recipients.

“In contrast, ending the Trump-era tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, could put a major dent in the national debt….”

Because most of this site’s readers won’t be able to get through the newspaper’s pay gate, here’s the draft of the letter sent to the Post:

Debt ceiling negotiators focus on a ‘speck’ in benefits for the poor, ignore the ‘logs’ in their own eyes.

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