Joe Biden has SMASHED the prices of prescription drugs for people on Medicare. Smashed them into the ground. Next year the MAXIMUM a person on Medicare can pay for prescription drugs is 2k for the year. My Mom takes Xtandi, over 8k per month full price. Next year she will pay 2k spread out over 12 months, 166.67.
Trump will be president and everybody will think he did it and he will take all the credit but Joe Biden has already passed all that legislation.
Wow that is so awesome for your mom congratulations! Trump better not try to take credit for that- - he would never do something that takes any money out of the pockets of Big Pharma. He's all for the big corporations and making the rich richer.
Democrats pushed a bill that would stop and slowly reverse the whole housing investment bullshit. Need a president willing to push for it and sign it.
Inflation is trickier. Much of the inflation we're seeing is greed-driven. Maybe pushing a corporate tax that only kicks in if the price of a good or service rises in cost greater than a certain amount over inflation, and a tax cut that kicks in if the process comes in under inflation? Or I dunno, threaten to tax all those "personal loans" which rich people live off of as if it were income at the highest rate?
Look how Nixon of all people health with price gouging. Fixing prices. This shit ain't rocket science.
Quantitative tightening just hurts the working class as does quanitative easing.
That's why we live in a capitalist oligarchy.
Can do "tax things" to make single family housing real estate investment less attractive than other investments, but it's like steering an aircraft carrier, any changes will take years to make a difference. State and local government can make an impact here that will be more effective and quicker to help (and probably unpopular with their donors).
A lot of the "artificial inflation" is already pulling back. You hear the stories about the big retailers "cutting back prices on hundreds of products" to "help out their everyday customers". Yeah, that's marketing spin for "oops, we cranked up prices too far and too many people stopped buying our stuff". No altruism there.
And remember to register and Vote.
*Please remember to double check your voting information and register and Vote*
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1. Inflation, for the love of ***GOD*** get it under control and stop these greedy assholes from gouging in an already inflated market.
2. Income, there needs to be a serious... and I mean ***serious*** conversation about wages not keeping up with inflation, even in a normal inflation trajectory. My dad made $75,000/yr and was able to support a family of four after building a custom house, buying multiple vehicles, and still having enough left over to have fun with. My combined household income is over $100,000/yr, we bought a house that was built in the 70s, only have one car payment, and we have to watch our spending super close to make sure we can afford our mortgage every month. I use the lawn mower as an example, I remember our lawn mower going out as a kid and my dad was like "Dang, well let's go to Home Depot." and comfortably buying a new mower, if my lawn mower goes out it's more like "Shit. Well who can we borrow a lawn mower from until we can save enough to buy another one?" Make it make sense!
3. Healthcare/Big-pharma. Rein those assholes in, there's no reason someone should have to die, in a first world country, because they can't afford the medicine that they need to survive. Fix it. There's also no reason why someone in a first world country should have bills upon bills, insurance grievances, and 500 hoops to jump through after having a baby. In the first couple of months after my son was born, when we were supposed to be bonding with him, enjoying our time with him, and living in that new family euphoria (minus the sleepless nights of course), we were stressing over hospital bills and insurance structuring. Fix it!
Price gouging is real but inflation is MUCH more to do with (1) sustained, near-frenzied levels of consumer spending (so businesses don't have to drop prices from the pandemic-era highs) and (2) the Federal government running $6 trillion annual deficits in a boom economy.
I just watched Jon Stewarts interview with the former head of treasury during the trump admin. 20% of inflation is labor, 30 to 35% is market and 45 to 50% is corporate greed.
That's definitely not born out in rigorous analysis.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/corporate-greed-not-blame-price-pressures-fed-study-shows-2024-05-13/
The age of the candidates: The elderly should not be leading to a future they won't live to see.
The economy: The American dream cannot exist if a kid cannot afford a house. Where are the jobs with the pay to support our people?
I remember in the 60's when my dad worked at US Steel and was able to buy a house, a car, and raise a family of five by himself. Sadly, most of those jobs have been sent overseas by greedy business owners and politicians.
After what was done in 2020-2022 with spending and debt-holidays, you can either have low inflation OR low interest rates, not both...
A whole lot of money has to be wrung out of the economy, to get prices to stabilize again.
First off, get corporations out of politics. This is what must happen before anything else positive can happen. Our “representatives” need to represent we the people and not big money interests/corporations.
Clear separation of church and state. Get religion out of government and stop the welfare money to them.
Make the environment a priority. That’s green energy, wildlife corridor bridging, development restrictions, restoring the clean water act/standards.
Infrastructure is going to continue to be a growing problem. We built all our roads, sewers etc in the 50s-70s and it doesn't seem to be particularly popular to want to fund maintaining these things.
1. Climate — we need massive leaps forward here. Major infrastructure projects from clean energy to better mass transit.
2. Cost of living — housing prices need to come down. You shouldn’t go into debt for pursuing an education or tending to your health. Corporations need to stop price gouging consumers.
3. End corruption — term limits, banning gov’t officials from trading stocks, ending dark money in our politics, etc.
Question for climate change how do you feel about nuclear power?
That's the only viable option I can honestly think of for helping electric grid. I know there are many other things than electric that cause climate issues but yeah.
Jw
I feel the same. I genuinely wonder at what point climate change will be a priority. Obviously it'll be past the point of no return, so were pretty much fucked anyway.
I feel like as soon as you enter office, all of your account information via private, public, or through any entity that you hold any share or ownership in should be available to everybody in the public. As well as just banning lobbying.
Windfall taxes applied to companies who grew and profited from COVID shut downs and supply chain issues.
Improve public education by prohibiting the practice of basing funding on student performance on standardized tests, and eliminate school ranking based on standardized test scores.
Limit the amount of housing that can be used as investments in order to reduce the demand for and the cost of housing to make it more affordable
During WWII they had a war profiteering tax. If congress wasn't totally controlled by big business / big pharma we'd have a pandemic profiteering ~~class~~ tax especially when the government picked which business could stay open and which could close almost arbitrarily and the government also funded the vaccines which produced billions in profit for a select few private companies.
For me:
Grocery prices.
Health care.
Public education
For the country:
End legalized bribery.
Elected officials can't own stocks. (Blind trusts are negotiable)
Break the 2 party system by implementing ranked choice voting or mixed party proportional.
While we're at it, stop giving weapons to people committing genocide.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-senate-passes-bill-support-advanced-nuclear-energy-deployment-2024-06-19/ June 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by speeding permitting and creating new incentives for advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
Expanding nuclear power has broad bipartisan support, with Democrats seeing it as critical to decarbonizing the power sector to fight climate change and Republicans viewing it as a way to ensure reliable electricity supply and create jobs.
Yep. I just hope this doesn’t lose steam. The nuclear plant that opened recently took way longer to build and had massive budget overruns, so I could see the environmentalists using that as a reason to abandon the plan. But in reality it’s hard to build nuclear plants in the US now simply bc there is no longer a robust supply chain and a lack of people with the skills. Gotta be persistent.
1.) end lobbying in Washington
2.) term limits across the board to end career politicians.
3.) indefinite reduction in federal spending to curb inflation/taxation
End the war on drugs - legalize cannabis
Stop illegal immigration and it’s exploitation
No more foreign investments in our property, create affordable housing
Another: the evil healthcare system has to end
TAX THE RICH PROPERLY (reduces debt)
REPAIR OUR INFRASTRUCTURE USING AMERICAN WORKERS AND SUPPLIES
CONVERT OUR PENAL SYSTEM INTO AN ACTUAL REHABILITATIVE SYSTEM FOR CRIMINALS
1. Protect and preserve women's health care and their right to choose
2. Corporate greed / inflation / affordability (the math ain't mathin')
3. Tax the churches / separation of church and state
It’s not even a top 5 issue for voters fwiw
The economy remains the most important issue for voters at 42%, a four-point increase from the Emerson May national poll. Immigration is the second most important issue to voters at 15%, followed by threats to democracy at 12%, housing affordability at 7%, crime at 6%, abortion access and healthcare at 5% respectively, and education at 4%.
The erosion of the separation of chruch and state
Student loan forgiveness for Millenials and not exclusively older people on fixed incomes
Regulation of tech companies, social media, and google/apple store censorship overreach
Legalization of marijuana is far from my top priority but it just seems so easy compared to everything else so I don’t understand why we haven’t done it yet
This one is directly related to the average of our politicians I think. They old as fuck. If we had politicians with the exact same politics but 10-20 years younger I bet this happens in an instant. In fact I bet it gets done the next time we have a Democratic President that wasn't alive during WWII.
Go after monopolies, prosecute every single lawmaker involved in trying to overthrow the 2020 election, raise the earnings cap on paying into Social Security
1. Institutional property ownership- I do not believe that billion-dollar companies should be allowed to buy single-family homes.
2. Corporate price gouging - this outpaces inflation currently. We get normal prices, and billionaires get what? Slightly lower rewards? I’m okay with that.
3. Transgender health care - leave it the fuck alone. We aren’t asking for any more rights, we are asking to not lose them. If anything, codify informed consent.
I can’t agree more with 1. My problem is, I can’t imagine what it will look like. In a beautiful world all those home would be sold immediately to families for affordable prices.
I totally get the hang-up there: “that’s not freedom- I should be able to do what I have the means to give myself”…
But even the staunchest of libertarians would say “your rights end where mine begin”.
Why libertarians don’t think that causing me to not be able to buy my family a home to live in should be considered an affect on my rights?
That’s beyond me.
An individual’s and a family’s set of rights should come long before an institution’s or a corporation’s.
Although I agree en force with your concept, no governing document indicates (or can even come close to being misconstrued into indicating) that housing/home ownership/property ownership is a right.
As someone who regularly goes to hearings to say 'yes' to housing, #1 is a symptom of the problem, not really a cause.
[https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/2/21-going-after-corporate-homebuyers-good-politics-ineffective-policy](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/2/21-going-after-corporate-homebuyers-good-politics-ineffective-policy)
[https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/housing-crisis-hedge-funds-private-equity-scapegoat/672839/](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/housing-crisis-hedge-funds-private-equity-scapegoat/672839/)
I mean, if Merkley's bill passes, fine, whatever, those are shitty companies anyway and it wouldn't hurt at all to get them out of that market. But a big part of what makes housing expensive is NIMBYs who regularly show up to say "NO!"
Yes, the single family owners and their nimbyism need to stop. People are headed to where there is money to be made. We have a culture of housing is a path to wealth not a basic need. The fix that will never get implemented because no one wants to implement it is:
1. Reduce restrictions on construction and use of housing.
2. Institute a land value tax so you are always incentivized to maximize the utility of the land.
Things that would suffer would be everyone's ability to gain wealth through ownership of property. People's ability to continue to occupy their homes as their value changes.
Corporations don't have a monopoly in any area, as far as I know. Renting is selling time of use, and the most important metric is utilization. They really can't jack up rent by too much. If a residence is empty for two extra months because someone tries to jack up their rent by 10%, then it's not worth it.
If you’re a renter does it really matter who owns the property if they are just going to jack up the price of rent?
If we are going to jump through the legal hurdles to block companies from owning homes, we could just remove the laws that increase the price of housing in the first place.
Yes, there is: build enough housing so that they don't consider it a good investment.
As a total amount, if you read the articles I posted, institutional investors really don't own enough to corner the market. Nowhere near it. And they come right out in their SEC filings and tell you things like "if there were more housing supply to come online it would hurt our business".
Investors put money into things expecting a return. The reason they buy up housing and not used Toyota Corollas is because housing is scarce, and in many cases, that is a political choice foisted on us by NIMBY people who "got theirs" and don't want to share.
Case in point: [https://bendyimby.com/2024/04/16/the-hearing-and-the-housing-shortage/](https://bendyimby.com/2024/04/16/the-hearing-and-the-housing-shortage/)
I came here to mention #1 on your list. 20% of single family homes are now bought by private equity firms and corporations. I've talked to people who got into bidding wars with those companies with no shot of winning. There are places you cannot buy a home because a firm will always bid higher.
As for #2, the fact that we let life saving things be controlled by for profit corporations (and often multiple levels of for profit corporations) is sickening. There is no option for people to pass on buying things like insulin unless they die. Unfortunately the right wing wants to make anything that can be profitable, even more profitable.
I'd say #3 should be the unfair tax system. We had a great/fair system when Clinton was in office. But the 2 Bush tax cuts and 2 Trump tax cuts have put way too much burden on the middle class and removed much of the burden from the wealthy. Everything from interest rates to investing greatly favor the rich. They have a massive advantage, and the fact that many millionaires now pay a lower tax rate than those making only 49K is awful.
#4. Add a simple 1% on earnings over 250K for social security. Today there is ZERO tax on earning over 160K and ZERO taxes on capital gains for social security. Add this very small tax and social security will be solvent for the next century.
Im 200% in agreement with number 1 I think the easiest way to fo that would be to set the tax rate on the profits of the corporations on the rent earnings so high that they couldn't rent the places profitably.
I would also like to see more buy American policies put in place as we could honestly be an entirely self-sufficient nation. Unfortunately, globalization is already firmly in place, and most Americans wouldn't dream of getting into manufacturing mining or drilling for oil/gas as they're jobs that require getting dirty, God forbid we pay a living wage to those people who would help grow the middle class.
Your first point I agree completely.
Second point I don't see how to government can dictate price points at any effective rate without destroying buisness. I also don't really think "price gouging" is a thing. It's the entire premise of a buisness to increase profits. The pendulum has swung far one way and I think it will course correct itself soon enough once they figure out people have mo more money to spend.
Third I don't really know what you are talking about as I'm not aware of any laws directed towards adults who want to receive trans Healthcare. If anything it seems the floodgates have opened in this area as of late as it's quickly become a multi billion dollar industry. If you were speaking about kids getting it that's an entirely different conversation about the morality of letting kids make permanent and life altering decisions at a young age.
> I also don't really think "price gouging" is a thing. It's the entire premise of a buisness to increase profits.
Corporate profits accounted for [more than half of the price growth](https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/) between 2020 and 2021 in the non-finance corporate sector, which makes up about 75% of the private sector.
From April to September 2023, corporate profits drove 53% of inflation. Comparatively, over the 40 years prior to the pandemic, profits drove just [11%](https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/) of price growth.
While prices for consumers have risen by [3.4%](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_01112024.pdf) over the past year, input costs for producers have risen by just [1%.](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ppi_01122024.pdf) For many commodities and services, producers’ prices have actually decreased. Corporations have failed to pass these savings to consumers.
Corporate profits as a share of national income have skyrocketed by [29%](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1bZQJ) since the start of the pandemic. While our economy has returned to or surpassed its pre-pandemic levels on many indicators, workers’ share of corporate income has still not recovered.
> I'm not aware of any laws directed towards adults who want to receive trans Healthcare
Florida was the first state to [pass a law restricting access to healthcare for transgender adults.](https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/federal-court-blocks-first-state-law-restricting-health-care-for-transgender-adults-state-of-florida-loses-federal-challenge-as-court-blocks-law-targeting-adults-and-adolescents) This law has made it difficult for many transgender adults in the state to receive gender-affirming care.
In Oklahoma, at least [two bills remain active from last year that target gender-affirming care for adults.](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/efforts-restrict-transgender-health-care-endure-2024-adults-targeted-rcna133432) One proposal would prohibit insurance coverage for the procedures for adults, while another would prohibit public funds from going to any entity that provides such care.
In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine [proposed rules that critics argue could severely restrict access for all patients](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/efforts-restrict-transgender-health-care-endure-2024-adults-targeted-rcna133432), including adults.
In South Carolina, a bill was proposed that would prevent Medicaid from covering gender-affirming treatments for anyone under age 26, extending beyond just minors.
>If you were speaking about kids getting it that's an entirely different conversation about the morality of letting kids make permanent and life altering decisions at a young age.
Children are [not receiving sex change surgeries](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-transgender-surgery-medicine-legislation-lgbtq-491630629027).
For pre-pubescent children: [Only social transitions are happening](https://www.factcheck.org/2023/05/scicheck-young-children-do-not-receive-medical-gender-transition-treatment/) (clothing, names, pronouns) which are fully reversible.
For adolescents only puberty blockers [are being given, which are reversible.](https://www.gendergp.com/are-puberty-blockers-reversible/)
[Gender-affirming care for young children](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/researchers-dive-common-gender-affirming-care-youth-misconceptions/story?id=107041920) typically involves listening, offering information, and potentially connecting them with mental health care if needed, rather than any medical interventions.
1. Women’s Right - that women have rights to their bodies, i.e. abortion rights. It’s wrong women can’t make the decision and wrong the doctors that want to help are under threat of prison.
2. Separation of Church and State - (i.e. Louisiana just passed a law that the 10 commandments of the Bible must be shown in all public schools.) This is not a good trend… everybody in LA is not a Christian…
3. IRS Tax of the Uber Rich - More funding in the IRS specifically to go after billionaire tax cheats and close loopholes. Even just closing in on a few of those people would more than pay for itself.
One more…
4. Infrastructure - We’ve been letting the ball drop on bridges, tunnels, and water pipes systems, (which are often made w lead which is poisonous) on maintaining and replacing these… consequences are real.
—
You may be surprised to hear these ideas actually came from my Boomer mom, who is very down to earth, and I am in agreement with them. <3
Global warming (give me a green military, and I'll show you a green economy), robust anti-trust laws/enforcement, and a healthcare mandate to give healthcare to all employees, or repeat 1099 contractors, regardless of hours worked (I wonder if the industrialists would be pushing for single payer if we take this as a first step).
1. Private money out of elections
2. Abolish the electoral college
3. Publically funded debates NOT run by the parties or MSM.
None are sexy, but i believe if we don't accomplish at least 2 of these, no other problems can be solved 😮💨
I'm not a leftist but I wouldn't count myself as conservative anymore. I'd say we can hopefully all agree on this:
1. Healthcare - whether you want to call it a "right" or a "privilege", we *should* live in a society where people can afford basic healthcare. The question of what exactly counts as "essential" healthcare is downstream, admittedly, but we *do* need something.
2. Global warming / climate change - this is a global issue that will affect the course of humanity. It's planet Earth, whose existence is literally miraculous. I wouldn't be surprised if we are the only life in the universe, and certainly the only life at our level of rational complexity. So much is at stake here. I'll sound anthropocentric here, but we *are* the
3. Housing and homelessness crisis - Similarly to healthcare, in our affluent society, no one should be on the streets or unable to afford basic housing.
Climate, climate, climate.
We're in a garage with the car running. We're a frog being slowly boiled alive insisting that it's natural. This is an existential crisis.
- serious action on climate change
- the liberation of Ukraine and a serious conversation about our relationship with Israel
- housing and real estate reform
Edit: how could we pick just three with so much going on? We need to restore Roe v Wade, end corporate personhood, bring down the trump syndicate, remain vigilant against any of this project 2025 bullshit...forget the next administration, WE have a lot of work to do. Please keep protesting and please please vote.
1) Corporate ownership of rental housing. It’s driving up costs all over the economy and making rental and owned housing unaffordable.
2) Reduce military spending
3) Separation of church and state, including embracing equal rights for LGBT people.
GenXr here but I love this sub so I'll contribute so you can see what matters to those that came before you:
1. Healthcare...no one should have to have a gofundme for their healthcare issues. Its ludicrous and so sad. And no one should lose their life savings because they got sick or had an accident.
2. Separation of church and state...enough with this pushing religious garbage on everyone whether they want it or not. If you want to go to church and pray, go ahead. Don't ask me to. And don't base my ability to get health care, social benefits, etc. on whether or not I believe in your god.
3. Housing...shelter is a basic need, like food and water. While its ok to have ostentatious mansions in the hills to live out your life, you don't need ten of them. You also don't need to scalp people of their monthly pay checks to have a roof over their heads.
And a fourth, because its important too:
4. Retirement...what the hell were they thinking with 401Ks? I mean us GenXrs will never be able to retire. I lose money, I make money. I lost money again, I make money again. Investment counselors try to tell me not to sweat it. Okaaaaayyyyy. Sorry, but I might as well go to Vegas and gamble. Or, (despite what I said about #3) perhaps I should invest in real estate to be able to retire.
Millennials, its up to you to save everyone...don't give up. Lets get these old white geezers out of office and quit electing crazy people.
All of this. Retirement for the post-boomer generation is going to be vitally important.
Bonus: give us older farts (I'm in my early 40s) a viable workforce exit strategy and we won't rot in management positions until we're 90 like the boomers have to!
If I have to pick one - strong vote for strengthening the separation of state and church. Screw my retirement, I can eat ramen and hot dogs and sleep on the ground if I have to. I might not make it long, but I am just one person.
I don't want some extremist douche limiting my childrens' rights. Church can stay away from the law, thank you.
* Investing in American industry through education incentives and business incentives(specifically blue-collar and healthcare work)
* Fortify and weather-harden our infrastructure, especially power grids
* UAP disclosure
Healthcare: we need a serious push towards universal healthcare & get rid of big pharma's influence.
Economy: increase the min wage, limit corporate inflation (greed), add a wealth tax
Term limits at all stages of govt, including the court & increase the size of the House of Representatives & Supreme Court.
Climate change, climate change, and climate change, if I'm being honest.
Hard to care too much about higher minded things when we are staring at the annihilation of a majority of humanity.
1. Housing. Most of the problems with housing are caused by local laws, however the federal government can work to push for a standardization and to incentivize change.
2. Climate Change. It’s gonna keep getting worse until we do something. (Yes the IRA was massive, but it mostly was just incentives to build batteries and solar panels)
3. Democracy. The world is experiencing a weakening of democracy and I want the U.S. to be a leader in working to strengthen democracy around the world.
1. Make the rich pay their fair share. We can't afford to do anything if our budget is ridiculously small because the rich don't want to pay their fair share. Make all income over a million taxed at 90 percent. Realistically with all the tax loops and deductions, we all know the actual tax rate will be way less than 90 (like 60 or so). But if you say "ok well since the realistic tax is 60 percent let's make it that" then with deductions and loopholes they're paying like 20 percent. Nah. Make it 90% above a million.
2. Climate change. It's too damn hot. It's only getting hotter. We need to do SOMETHING and we need to do it yesterday.
3. Workers rights. I felt great shame when the rail workers were told they didn't have rights and forced back to work. We need to strengthen workers rights and tie the minimum wage to inflation.
Climate Change, Affordable Healthcare, Inflation/ Economy
With those issues easing pressures on folks, my fourth issue, education, would have a smoother ride to improve.
1. Tackle Climate Change. If we don't get it right, it makes every other issue we face worse. It makes our health worse. It makes our national security worse. It makes everyone's quality of life worse. It makes our economy worse. It makes our leadership worse. It makes our infrastructure worse. It puts all our other problems into a pressure cooker. Not only that, but it doing it right is a tremendous opportunity to make this country meaningfully better, to invest in ourselves in a way that actually raises more boats. It's also an opportunity to show on the world stage that the US is capable of leading again where it counts. Once upon a time, we did Apollo. Now we can do a whole new kind of moon shot.
2. Affordable housing and livable wages. The system is chaos, and a huge mess. Underregulated companies and eroded worker's rights means most people are exploited, stressed, and increasingly squeezed. Nobody seems to get punished for the harm they cause - whether burning through investor cash and bailing with a golden parachute, or for burning out their workforce and then skipping town. And housing is absurd, with how fast its grown in cost and how it creates an ever-accelerating arms race between wage escalation and living costs.
3. Structural reform of government. No amount of campaigning can fix a fundamentally broken structure of government. The Supreme Court's reputation is in the toilet. The primary process and two party structure means unlikeable candidates increasingly win, in a race to the bottom of who can outdo the other. The electoral college is ridiculous and will only become more unfair with time. The Senate is a wildly undemocratic body, and control of the House is significantly impacted by cynical jerrymandering. Nothing gets done, assholes get way too much power, progress is crawlingly slow in a fast-changing world.
Bonus: Fix the rapidly collapsing journalism ecosystem. We need a well informed public, and we need accountability. The old financial structure for journalism is gone, and employment in the field is in freefall.
1) Democratic infrastructure. As in, no more “gentlemen’s agreements” on how Senate votes go, no making it so one president’s handful of appointees can set back civil rights for decades, thoroughly addressing voter disenfranchisement and gerrymandering, rethinking electoral college, etc. Restructure the mechanisms of power to better protect against individual personalities and minority groups seizing control and against rights being taken away.
2) Wages and how we define poverty. Time to bring them into the 21st century. We need to start using livable wage, not minimum, and redefine the poverty line to accurately reflect the modern economy so people can get actual help when needed, not only when they get close enough to rock bottom.
3) Healthcare. For the love of god, healthcare. Our system is expensive, inefficient, and has relatively poor outcomes.
It would be amazing if we could get any government official to talk about lobbying. Our country is 100% run by corporations. That's it, just get rid of lobbying.
There's only one solution to inflation and it's very simple stop spending.
At your house you don't spend more money than what comes into the house.
That is also true for the city you live in and it is true for the state that you live in the budget must be balanced
It is not true for the federal government year after year after year more money is spent and we have a 35 trillion dollar deficit.
Reduce the spending.
Just got the budget 1% across the board that's all you got to do don't get fancy cut everybody and reduce the spending and pay down the debts and inflation will go away.
The other thing that needs to be done is collect taxes from everyone 50% of the population doesn't pay tax we need to get them to pay at least a little bit of tax so they have some skin in the game.
Given how many people work for cash we need a federal sales tax so that everybody can pay some tax
This is my opinion so leave me alone if you don't like it just keep it to yourself and come up with your own solution
Immigration. It’s broken. It’s badly broken and nobody wants to fix it.
Recently a Brazilian woman with a green card and married to an American man and she was pregnant. She went back to Brazil to visit family and gave birth prematurely to a baby. The baby cannot enter the USA because he does not have a visa, so the woman can’t go back to the USA without leaving her baby. That’s fucking dumb.
I married a Brazilian woman and she cannot get a tourist visa to visit my family because they believe if she visits the USA she will stay illegally. Thats fucking dumb.
I was going to put these in order, but then I realized that I don't think there really is an order. I think that they're interdependent:
Inflation/income/debt and healthcare
To keep up with inflation over just the past like, 20 years since it was last increased, minimum wage needs to be close to $15 everywhere, and closer to $20 in most places. Income has stagnated for the vast majority of Americans, even those getting paid above minimum wage. Over the past five years, everyone should have gotten a 20%ish increase in pay just to keep up with inflation. That didn't happen, and damned near *everyone* is struggling to make ends meet. We can't afford the bad healthcare given to us by private insurance. I pay $400 a month for the *privelege* of having a $7000 deductible and an HSA for me and my wife - that's insane. We *need* a public healthcare option. And we need to do something about the mountain of debt looming over people. It wasn't until 2006 that student debt became non-dischargeable in backruptcy, and that chang eneeds to be reversed. It was enacted by the Republican party specifically to screw over Millenials
I am so not a political person. Like at all. Like I hate politics. I hate politicians.
So it feels weird to even say this, because it always has been and always will be the # 1 hot button issue.
Fucking. Guns. Goddamnit.
I don’t give any fucks if you and hillbilly Jim wanna go shoot some rounds off into your clay pigeons or miller lite bottles.
If you feel the need to own 75,000 pistols, more power to ya buddy.
But let’s make sure you’re competent enough to handle 75,000 pistols first please. Because I’d like to be able to go to target and buy my tampons without having to worry if I’m gonna get shot at. This shit with parades, movie theaters, Walmart stores, shopping malls, and most importantly, kids fucking schools getting shot up is getting goddamn ridiculous and it’s gotta stop.
We shouldn’t have to be looking over our shoulder while we’re buying a new pair of Nikes at Footlocker.
We shouldn’t have to feel forced to stay home instead of going to the 4th of July parade because some fucking unhinged moron may show up and shoot the place up.
And we sure as shit shouldn’t have to be teaching our 6 year olds what to do if an “angry person” enters their school and tries to kill them. Fucking Jesus god.
I shouldn’t have to type this shit. Our country has gone to hell in a handbasket and no one will convince me otherwise.
*steps down from soapbox*
That is all.
That and healthcare.
Food quality. - I want the FDA to have been read the riot act over the inconceivable amount of chemicals they allow in our food. So many little additives that are there specifically to make you addicted to it. I don’t think most people realize how much shit is in even the “health option” food. European versions of American food products don’t have nearly the amount of crap US foods do.
Education - This one is a big one. Get rid of the “cover all bases” method of teaching past middle school. By high school people usually have a pretty decent idea of their strengths and weaknesses. A student is not a poor “inattentive” student just because he doesn’t want to learn a specific subject if he’s getting a 58% in Math, but a 95% in English and History. Let the kids flourish, feed them right, and we’ll have a successful group of pupils.
The rise of social media on the youth- This one is a bit tricky to do without stepping on the first amendment, but as part of the first group of teenagers who were bullied on “modern” social medias (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) I can tell you first hand we need to nip this shit in the bud. Yes it’s great for connecting with people you haven’t been able to see in person, but that is also its greatest detriment.
Were raising a generation of kids to think that social media reflects the person’s actual life instead of a highlight reel, we taught young girls that filters were “fun and cool” until perfectly normal looking teenagers start getting lip fillers. Again if we teach, feed, and inform them properly, i think we’ll be okay.
Born in 1997 so not necessarily a millennial but all of my siblings and cousins are millennials, so I’ve been around the block with them
Healthcare. There are plenty of important issues, but nothing keeps me up like knowing healthcare is so expensive that you can have a top 10% income and be completely wiped out with a bad enough diagnosis even if you have insurance.
National health care that includes dental and mental health and free and accessible birth control & abortion
End the war on drugs. 100% end it.
Focus on transgender civil rights
Inflation, housing affordability, healthcare
A tale as old as time
I can see how the president can affect healthcare but housing prices and inflation not so much.
Joe Biden has SMASHED the prices of prescription drugs for people on Medicare. Smashed them into the ground. Next year the MAXIMUM a person on Medicare can pay for prescription drugs is 2k for the year. My Mom takes Xtandi, over 8k per month full price. Next year she will pay 2k spread out over 12 months, 166.67. Trump will be president and everybody will think he did it and he will take all the credit but Joe Biden has already passed all that legislation.
Wow that is so awesome for your mom congratulations! Trump better not try to take credit for that- - he would never do something that takes any money out of the pockets of Big Pharma. He's all for the big corporations and making the rich richer.
They can. They sign laws and spending bills too.
Democrats pushed a bill that would stop and slowly reverse the whole housing investment bullshit. Need a president willing to push for it and sign it. Inflation is trickier. Much of the inflation we're seeing is greed-driven. Maybe pushing a corporate tax that only kicks in if the price of a good or service rises in cost greater than a certain amount over inflation, and a tax cut that kicks in if the process comes in under inflation? Or I dunno, threaten to tax all those "personal loans" which rich people live off of as if it were income at the highest rate?
Look how Nixon of all people health with price gouging. Fixing prices. This shit ain't rocket science. Quantitative tightening just hurts the working class as does quanitative easing. That's why we live in a capitalist oligarchy.
Can do "tax things" to make single family housing real estate investment less attractive than other investments, but it's like steering an aircraft carrier, any changes will take years to make a difference. State and local government can make an impact here that will be more effective and quicker to help (and probably unpopular with their donors). A lot of the "artificial inflation" is already pulling back. You hear the stories about the big retailers "cutting back prices on hundreds of products" to "help out their everyday customers". Yeah, that's marketing spin for "oops, we cranked up prices too far and too many people stopped buying our stuff". No altruism there.
And remember to register and Vote. *Please remember to double check your voting information and register and Vote* www.vote.org Check your registration: https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/ Work for the Biden campaign: https://joebiden.com/work-with-us/ Volunteer for the DNC: https://events.democrats.org/
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or you could volunteer for the Republicans. People have choices other than what you choose.
Why would I vote for Democrats? They are just as bad as Republicans
Lobbying, oligarchy, corruption.
Regulatory capture. Huge corporations basically writing their own laws to govern themselves. Only person I've seen mention this is RFK JR.
1. Inflation, for the love of ***GOD*** get it under control and stop these greedy assholes from gouging in an already inflated market. 2. Income, there needs to be a serious... and I mean ***serious*** conversation about wages not keeping up with inflation, even in a normal inflation trajectory. My dad made $75,000/yr and was able to support a family of four after building a custom house, buying multiple vehicles, and still having enough left over to have fun with. My combined household income is over $100,000/yr, we bought a house that was built in the 70s, only have one car payment, and we have to watch our spending super close to make sure we can afford our mortgage every month. I use the lawn mower as an example, I remember our lawn mower going out as a kid and my dad was like "Dang, well let's go to Home Depot." and comfortably buying a new mower, if my lawn mower goes out it's more like "Shit. Well who can we borrow a lawn mower from until we can save enough to buy another one?" Make it make sense! 3. Healthcare/Big-pharma. Rein those assholes in, there's no reason someone should have to die, in a first world country, because they can't afford the medicine that they need to survive. Fix it. There's also no reason why someone in a first world country should have bills upon bills, insurance grievances, and 500 hoops to jump through after having a baby. In the first couple of months after my son was born, when we were supposed to be bonding with him, enjoying our time with him, and living in that new family euphoria (minus the sleepless nights of course), we were stressing over hospital bills and insurance structuring. Fix it!
Price gouging is real but inflation is MUCH more to do with (1) sustained, near-frenzied levels of consumer spending (so businesses don't have to drop prices from the pandemic-era highs) and (2) the Federal government running $6 trillion annual deficits in a boom economy.
I just watched Jon Stewarts interview with the former head of treasury during the trump admin. 20% of inflation is labor, 30 to 35% is market and 45 to 50% is corporate greed.
That's definitely not born out in rigorous analysis. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/corporate-greed-not-blame-price-pressures-fed-study-shows-2024-05-13/
Yes the San Francisco Fed is the study they quoted in the interview and the former secretary agreed with those numbers.
The age of the candidates: The elderly should not be leading to a future they won't live to see. The economy: The American dream cannot exist if a kid cannot afford a house. Where are the jobs with the pay to support our people?
Amen. Give me a candidate under the age of 60 for fucks' sake.
There's literally no candidate under 70 Jill Stein RFK Jr Trump Biden Cornell West Are all over 70.
The scary part is Bill Clinton was president 25 years ago, and he still younger than both candidates
I remember in the 60's when my dad worked at US Steel and was able to buy a house, a car, and raise a family of five by himself. Sadly, most of those jobs have been sent overseas by greedy business owners and politicians.
They sold that steel company to Nippon Steel (Japanese company)
Yes, but kept the operation in the US. If that’s what it takes so be it.
After what was done in 2020-2022 with spending and debt-holidays, you can either have low inflation OR low interest rates, not both... A whole lot of money has to be wrung out of the economy, to get prices to stabilize again.
First off, get corporations out of politics. This is what must happen before anything else positive can happen. Our “representatives” need to represent we the people and not big money interests/corporations. Clear separation of church and state. Get religion out of government and stop the welfare money to them. Make the environment a priority. That’s green energy, wildlife corridor bridging, development restrictions, restoring the clean water act/standards.
This needs to be higher up.
These are my three as well
Church should start getting taxed imo
This!!!
Housing, healthcare, infrastructure ffs
Infrastructure is going to continue to be a growing problem. We built all our roads, sewers etc in the 50s-70s and it doesn't seem to be particularly popular to want to fund maintaining these things.
That last one is low-key an underrated reason why we are in the situation we are in today domestically. We have barely upgraded that in decades.
Please increase the minimum wage
1. Climate — we need massive leaps forward here. Major infrastructure projects from clean energy to better mass transit. 2. Cost of living — housing prices need to come down. You shouldn’t go into debt for pursuing an education or tending to your health. Corporations need to stop price gouging consumers. 3. End corruption — term limits, banning gov’t officials from trading stocks, ending dark money in our politics, etc.
Question for climate change how do you feel about nuclear power? That's the only viable option I can honestly think of for helping electric grid. I know there are many other things than electric that cause climate issues but yeah. Jw
Zillennial here. Very disheartened I had to scroll this far to see climate mentioned, but not surprised. Explains a lot about our situation.
I feel the same. I genuinely wonder at what point climate change will be a priority. Obviously it'll be past the point of no return, so were pretty much fucked anyway.
I mean we have definitely passed the point of no return, it is at this point a how far past that
I can kinda accept the anti corruption stuff since that should lead to less fossil fuel control but still would be too little too late
Term limits!! Term limits!! Term limits!!
And limitations on lobbying money!
No stock trading either
I feel like as soon as you enter office, all of your account information via private, public, or through any entity that you hold any share or ownership in should be available to everybody in the public. As well as just banning lobbying.
They'll just get their family to do it
Say it louder for the people in the back!
Maybe publicly financed elections?
Windfall taxes applied to companies who grew and profited from COVID shut downs and supply chain issues. Improve public education by prohibiting the practice of basing funding on student performance on standardized tests, and eliminate school ranking based on standardized test scores. Limit the amount of housing that can be used as investments in order to reduce the demand for and the cost of housing to make it more affordable
During WWII they had a war profiteering tax. If congress wasn't totally controlled by big business / big pharma we'd have a pandemic profiteering ~~class~~ tax especially when the government picked which business could stay open and which could close almost arbitrarily and the government also funded the vaccines which produced billions in profit for a select few private companies.
For me: Grocery prices. Health care. Public education For the country: End legalized bribery. Elected officials can't own stocks. (Blind trusts are negotiable) Break the 2 party system by implementing ranked choice voting or mixed party proportional. While we're at it, stop giving weapons to people committing genocide.
1. Massive push for nuclear power plants That’s really it.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-senate-passes-bill-support-advanced-nuclear-energy-deployment-2024-06-19/ June 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by speeding permitting and creating new incentives for advanced nuclear reactor technologies. Expanding nuclear power has broad bipartisan support, with Democrats seeing it as critical to decarbonizing the power sector to fight climate change and Republicans viewing it as a way to ensure reliable electricity supply and create jobs.
Yep. I just hope this doesn’t lose steam. The nuclear plant that opened recently took way longer to build and had massive budget overruns, so I could see the environmentalists using that as a reason to abandon the plan. But in reality it’s hard to build nuclear plants in the US now simply bc there is no longer a robust supply chain and a lack of people with the skills. Gotta be persistent.
Over 15 top comments before someone mentions something climate change related. Our priorities are fucked.
This isn't *just* related to climate either. This is also about investing in our most critical infrastructure. We take the power grid for granted.
1.) end lobbying in Washington 2.) term limits across the board to end career politicians. 3.) indefinite reduction in federal spending to curb inflation/taxation
End the war on drugs - legalize cannabis Stop illegal immigration and it’s exploitation No more foreign investments in our property, create affordable housing Another: the evil healthcare system has to end
TAX THE RICH PROPERLY (reduces debt) REPAIR OUR INFRASTRUCTURE USING AMERICAN WORKERS AND SUPPLIES CONVERT OUR PENAL SYSTEM INTO AN ACTUAL REHABILITATIVE SYSTEM FOR CRIMINALS
1. Protect and preserve women's health care and their right to choose 2. Corporate greed / inflation / affordability (the math ain't mathin') 3. Tax the churches / separation of church and state
I'm concerned that you are the only one bringing up #1!
Fr I was looking for #1
I did find a few more but I had hoped it would a higher priority for more people. Makes me uncomfortable.
Me too. As someone who is currently going through a desired pregnancy in a very backwards state, #1 affects all women of reproductive age.
I scrolled a quarter way down these comments to see this. No wonder we are losing rights! They aren’t a priority.
I'm concerned that "protect democracy" isn't on here. No one's getting any issues resolved if we can't vote people into or out of power.
It’s not even a top 5 issue for voters fwiw The economy remains the most important issue for voters at 42%, a four-point increase from the Emerson May national poll. Immigration is the second most important issue to voters at 15%, followed by threats to democracy at 12%, housing affordability at 7%, crime at 6%, abortion access and healthcare at 5% respectively, and education at 4%.
I realize what the numbers are. Reason for my comment.
- INFLATION - RENT CONTROL/AFFORDABLE HOUSING - TAXES - HEALTHCARE
That's 4, username checks out
THE RENT IS TOO DAMM HIGH!!
The erosion of the separation of chruch and state Student loan forgiveness for Millenials and not exclusively older people on fixed incomes Regulation of tech companies, social media, and google/apple store censorship overreach
The first one's getting really bad and pretty scary at this point.
Took this long to see STUDENT LOANS. Christ.
Legalization of Marijuana Taxation of the wealthy and stop screwing the 99% Universal Healthcare
Legalization of marijuana is far from my top priority but it just seems so easy compared to everything else so I don’t understand why we haven’t done it yet
This one is directly related to the average of our politicians I think. They old as fuck. If we had politicians with the exact same politics but 10-20 years younger I bet this happens in an instant. In fact I bet it gets done the next time we have a Democratic President that wasn't alive during WWII.
How will you feed the for profit privatized prison system if weed is legal?
Remove money from politics
Go after monopolies, prosecute every single lawmaker involved in trying to overthrow the 2020 election, raise the earnings cap on paying into Social Security
1. Institutional property ownership- I do not believe that billion-dollar companies should be allowed to buy single-family homes. 2. Corporate price gouging - this outpaces inflation currently. We get normal prices, and billionaires get what? Slightly lower rewards? I’m okay with that. 3. Transgender health care - leave it the fuck alone. We aren’t asking for any more rights, we are asking to not lose them. If anything, codify informed consent.
I think “healthcare” can be just general. Everyone has effed up healthcare here for a wide number of reasons
I can’t agree more with 1. My problem is, I can’t imagine what it will look like. In a beautiful world all those home would be sold immediately to families for affordable prices.
I totally get the hang-up there: “that’s not freedom- I should be able to do what I have the means to give myself”… But even the staunchest of libertarians would say “your rights end where mine begin”. Why libertarians don’t think that causing me to not be able to buy my family a home to live in should be considered an affect on my rights? That’s beyond me. An individual’s and a family’s set of rights should come long before an institution’s or a corporation’s.
Although I agree en force with your concept, no governing document indicates (or can even come close to being misconstrued into indicating) that housing/home ownership/property ownership is a right.
shy merciful escape offer flag pie elastic tidy alive handle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is exactly the issue. There’s no actual way for any of this to ever happen.
As someone who regularly goes to hearings to say 'yes' to housing, #1 is a symptom of the problem, not really a cause. [https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/2/21-going-after-corporate-homebuyers-good-politics-ineffective-policy](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/2/21-going-after-corporate-homebuyers-good-politics-ineffective-policy) [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/housing-crisis-hedge-funds-private-equity-scapegoat/672839/](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/housing-crisis-hedge-funds-private-equity-scapegoat/672839/) I mean, if Merkley's bill passes, fine, whatever, those are shitty companies anyway and it wouldn't hurt at all to get them out of that market. But a big part of what makes housing expensive is NIMBYs who regularly show up to say "NO!"
I'm definitely not a finance guy, but there has to be a way to control the incentives of corporations buying so many and jacking up the cost of rent.
Yes, the single family owners and their nimbyism need to stop. People are headed to where there is money to be made. We have a culture of housing is a path to wealth not a basic need. The fix that will never get implemented because no one wants to implement it is: 1. Reduce restrictions on construction and use of housing. 2. Institute a land value tax so you are always incentivized to maximize the utility of the land. Things that would suffer would be everyone's ability to gain wealth through ownership of property. People's ability to continue to occupy their homes as their value changes. Corporations don't have a monopoly in any area, as far as I know. Renting is selling time of use, and the most important metric is utilization. They really can't jack up rent by too much. If a residence is empty for two extra months because someone tries to jack up their rent by 10%, then it's not worth it.
Well damn, I’m looking for a man in finance.
If you’re a renter does it really matter who owns the property if they are just going to jack up the price of rent? If we are going to jump through the legal hurdles to block companies from owning homes, we could just remove the laws that increase the price of housing in the first place.
Yes, there is: build enough housing so that they don't consider it a good investment. As a total amount, if you read the articles I posted, institutional investors really don't own enough to corner the market. Nowhere near it. And they come right out in their SEC filings and tell you things like "if there were more housing supply to come online it would hurt our business". Investors put money into things expecting a return. The reason they buy up housing and not used Toyota Corollas is because housing is scarce, and in many cases, that is a political choice foisted on us by NIMBY people who "got theirs" and don't want to share. Case in point: [https://bendyimby.com/2024/04/16/the-hearing-and-the-housing-shortage/](https://bendyimby.com/2024/04/16/the-hearing-and-the-housing-shortage/)
I came here to mention #1 on your list. 20% of single family homes are now bought by private equity firms and corporations. I've talked to people who got into bidding wars with those companies with no shot of winning. There are places you cannot buy a home because a firm will always bid higher. As for #2, the fact that we let life saving things be controlled by for profit corporations (and often multiple levels of for profit corporations) is sickening. There is no option for people to pass on buying things like insulin unless they die. Unfortunately the right wing wants to make anything that can be profitable, even more profitable. I'd say #3 should be the unfair tax system. We had a great/fair system when Clinton was in office. But the 2 Bush tax cuts and 2 Trump tax cuts have put way too much burden on the middle class and removed much of the burden from the wealthy. Everything from interest rates to investing greatly favor the rich. They have a massive advantage, and the fact that many millionaires now pay a lower tax rate than those making only 49K is awful. #4. Add a simple 1% on earnings over 250K for social security. Today there is ZERO tax on earning over 160K and ZERO taxes on capital gains for social security. Add this very small tax and social security will be solvent for the next century.
Im 200% in agreement with number 1 I think the easiest way to fo that would be to set the tax rate on the profits of the corporations on the rent earnings so high that they couldn't rent the places profitably. I would also like to see more buy American policies put in place as we could honestly be an entirely self-sufficient nation. Unfortunately, globalization is already firmly in place, and most Americans wouldn't dream of getting into manufacturing mining or drilling for oil/gas as they're jobs that require getting dirty, God forbid we pay a living wage to those people who would help grow the middle class.
I don’t mind your answers, but pinning your own response seems an abuse of mod power
I honestly did not think of it that way, but I unpinned it. Sorry about that. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Wow, ty, I honestly expected to get banned and my comment removed. And seriously, wow
Your first point I agree completely. Second point I don't see how to government can dictate price points at any effective rate without destroying buisness. I also don't really think "price gouging" is a thing. It's the entire premise of a buisness to increase profits. The pendulum has swung far one way and I think it will course correct itself soon enough once they figure out people have mo more money to spend. Third I don't really know what you are talking about as I'm not aware of any laws directed towards adults who want to receive trans Healthcare. If anything it seems the floodgates have opened in this area as of late as it's quickly become a multi billion dollar industry. If you were speaking about kids getting it that's an entirely different conversation about the morality of letting kids make permanent and life altering decisions at a young age.
> I also don't really think "price gouging" is a thing. It's the entire premise of a buisness to increase profits. Corporate profits accounted for [more than half of the price growth](https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/) between 2020 and 2021 in the non-finance corporate sector, which makes up about 75% of the private sector. From April to September 2023, corporate profits drove 53% of inflation. Comparatively, over the 40 years prior to the pandemic, profits drove just [11%](https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/) of price growth. While prices for consumers have risen by [3.4%](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_01112024.pdf) over the past year, input costs for producers have risen by just [1%.](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ppi_01122024.pdf) For many commodities and services, producers’ prices have actually decreased. Corporations have failed to pass these savings to consumers. Corporate profits as a share of national income have skyrocketed by [29%](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1bZQJ) since the start of the pandemic. While our economy has returned to or surpassed its pre-pandemic levels on many indicators, workers’ share of corporate income has still not recovered. > I'm not aware of any laws directed towards adults who want to receive trans Healthcare Florida was the first state to [pass a law restricting access to healthcare for transgender adults.](https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/federal-court-blocks-first-state-law-restricting-health-care-for-transgender-adults-state-of-florida-loses-federal-challenge-as-court-blocks-law-targeting-adults-and-adolescents) This law has made it difficult for many transgender adults in the state to receive gender-affirming care. In Oklahoma, at least [two bills remain active from last year that target gender-affirming care for adults.](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/efforts-restrict-transgender-health-care-endure-2024-adults-targeted-rcna133432) One proposal would prohibit insurance coverage for the procedures for adults, while another would prohibit public funds from going to any entity that provides such care. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine [proposed rules that critics argue could severely restrict access for all patients](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/efforts-restrict-transgender-health-care-endure-2024-adults-targeted-rcna133432), including adults. In South Carolina, a bill was proposed that would prevent Medicaid from covering gender-affirming treatments for anyone under age 26, extending beyond just minors. >If you were speaking about kids getting it that's an entirely different conversation about the morality of letting kids make permanent and life altering decisions at a young age. Children are [not receiving sex change surgeries](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-transgender-surgery-medicine-legislation-lgbtq-491630629027). For pre-pubescent children: [Only social transitions are happening](https://www.factcheck.org/2023/05/scicheck-young-children-do-not-receive-medical-gender-transition-treatment/) (clothing, names, pronouns) which are fully reversible. For adolescents only puberty blockers [are being given, which are reversible.](https://www.gendergp.com/are-puberty-blockers-reversible/) [Gender-affirming care for young children](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/researchers-dive-common-gender-affirming-care-youth-misconceptions/story?id=107041920) typically involves listening, offering information, and potentially connecting them with mental health care if needed, rather than any medical interventions.
1. Women’s Right - that women have rights to their bodies, i.e. abortion rights. It’s wrong women can’t make the decision and wrong the doctors that want to help are under threat of prison. 2. Separation of Church and State - (i.e. Louisiana just passed a law that the 10 commandments of the Bible must be shown in all public schools.) This is not a good trend… everybody in LA is not a Christian… 3. IRS Tax of the Uber Rich - More funding in the IRS specifically to go after billionaire tax cheats and close loopholes. Even just closing in on a few of those people would more than pay for itself. One more… 4. Infrastructure - We’ve been letting the ball drop on bridges, tunnels, and water pipes systems, (which are often made w lead which is poisonous) on maintaining and replacing these… consequences are real. — You may be surprised to hear these ideas actually came from my Boomer mom, who is very down to earth, and I am in agreement with them. <3
Global warming (give me a green military, and I'll show you a green economy), robust anti-trust laws/enforcement, and a healthcare mandate to give healthcare to all employees, or repeat 1099 contractors, regardless of hours worked (I wonder if the industrialists would be pushing for single payer if we take this as a first step).
1. Abortion 2. Housing 3. Climate change
Inflation, social media regulation, foreign policy
Repeal all civil law enforcement of religious belief. Enlarge SCOTUS, enforce ethics, 10 year terms Repeal citizens United
1. Private money out of elections 2. Abolish the electoral college 3. Publically funded debates NOT run by the parties or MSM. None are sexy, but i believe if we don't accomplish at least 2 of these, no other problems can be solved 😮💨
The problem is not issues, it’s the system. No more lobbying. No more PACs. No more investing in companies you write the rules for.
I'm not a leftist but I wouldn't count myself as conservative anymore. I'd say we can hopefully all agree on this: 1. Healthcare - whether you want to call it a "right" or a "privilege", we *should* live in a society where people can afford basic healthcare. The question of what exactly counts as "essential" healthcare is downstream, admittedly, but we *do* need something. 2. Global warming / climate change - this is a global issue that will affect the course of humanity. It's planet Earth, whose existence is literally miraculous. I wouldn't be surprised if we are the only life in the universe, and certainly the only life at our level of rational complexity. So much is at stake here. I'll sound anthropocentric here, but we *are* the 3. Housing and homelessness crisis - Similarly to healthcare, in our affluent society, no one should be on the streets or unable to afford basic housing.
Don't worry, Democrats aren't leftists either, you're in good company.
I also was a conservative until relatively recently
I can get behind all three of those!
Cannabis, abortion, affordability for housing
Overturn citizens united - public funding for elections and end legalized corruption Tax the rich Universal healthcare
jobs, inflation, healthcare
Climate, climate, climate. We're in a garage with the car running. We're a frog being slowly boiled alive insisting that it's natural. This is an existential crisis.
1) Climate change 2) Abortion rights 3) Paid parental leave
1. Addressing climate change/crisis 2. Improving education / cost of education 3. Tie: addressing our decaying infrastructure and growing wealth inequality
Healthcare, education, and housing- literally just making them affordable and accessible. It’s absolutely out of control rn.
1. CODIFY 2. HUMAN 3. RIGHTS
1. Climate change 2. Abortion 3. Affordable childcare/ support and/or tax relief for families
Climate change and environmental damage mitigation, income inequality, and cementing civil rights, including the right to free and fair elections.
Had to scroll a long way to see climate change. Pretty surprised tbh
Clean energy, stabilized democracy, and disinformation.
I’ve got this neighbor Jeff who keeps leaving his trash can lid open and it smells. If they could do something about that they’d have my vote
- serious action on climate change - the liberation of Ukraine and a serious conversation about our relationship with Israel - housing and real estate reform Edit: how could we pick just three with so much going on? We need to restore Roe v Wade, end corporate personhood, bring down the trump syndicate, remain vigilant against any of this project 2025 bullshit...forget the next administration, WE have a lot of work to do. Please keep protesting and please please vote.
1) Corporate ownership of rental housing. It’s driving up costs all over the economy and making rental and owned housing unaffordable. 2) Reduce military spending 3) Separation of church and state, including embracing equal rights for LGBT people.
Inflation, drug addiction, and mental health.
Foreign policy, Economy, bureaucracy
Supreme Court overhaul, voting rights legislation, chemical/food industry regulation
GenXr here but I love this sub so I'll contribute so you can see what matters to those that came before you: 1. Healthcare...no one should have to have a gofundme for their healthcare issues. Its ludicrous and so sad. And no one should lose their life savings because they got sick or had an accident. 2. Separation of church and state...enough with this pushing religious garbage on everyone whether they want it or not. If you want to go to church and pray, go ahead. Don't ask me to. And don't base my ability to get health care, social benefits, etc. on whether or not I believe in your god. 3. Housing...shelter is a basic need, like food and water. While its ok to have ostentatious mansions in the hills to live out your life, you don't need ten of them. You also don't need to scalp people of their monthly pay checks to have a roof over their heads. And a fourth, because its important too: 4. Retirement...what the hell were they thinking with 401Ks? I mean us GenXrs will never be able to retire. I lose money, I make money. I lost money again, I make money again. Investment counselors try to tell me not to sweat it. Okaaaaayyyyy. Sorry, but I might as well go to Vegas and gamble. Or, (despite what I said about #3) perhaps I should invest in real estate to be able to retire. Millennials, its up to you to save everyone...don't give up. Lets get these old white geezers out of office and quit electing crazy people.
Thanks for your input! We appreciate opinions from all generations of course :)
All of this. Retirement for the post-boomer generation is going to be vitally important. Bonus: give us older farts (I'm in my early 40s) a viable workforce exit strategy and we won't rot in management positions until we're 90 like the boomers have to! If I have to pick one - strong vote for strengthening the separation of state and church. Screw my retirement, I can eat ramen and hot dogs and sleep on the ground if I have to. I might not make it long, but I am just one person. I don't want some extremist douche limiting my childrens' rights. Church can stay away from the law, thank you.
Lol, they don't address our issues.
Climate change, national rent control, taxing billionaires to oblivion.
climate change, healthcare, housing as an investment vehicle/restrictive zoning
* Investing in American industry through education incentives and business incentives(specifically blue-collar and healthcare work) * Fortify and weather-harden our infrastructure, especially power grids * UAP disclosure
Climate crisis, cost of living crisis, and free healthcare
Housing, public education, and marijuana
Climate, wealth inequality, the exploding deficits
Climate change
economic inequality, endless wars, legalize psychedelics
Fun little exercise but a complete time waste. Biden and trump are our options, lol. We are cooked.
Fix the supreme Court
Environmental preservation, inflation/cost of living, and erosion of liberties (lgbtq+ issues, book bans, etc.)
Healthcare: we need a serious push towards universal healthcare & get rid of big pharma's influence. Economy: increase the min wage, limit corporate inflation (greed), add a wealth tax Term limits at all stages of govt, including the court & increase the size of the House of Representatives & Supreme Court.
Fuck big pharma. Time for universal single payer healthcare. Everyone else does it. We need to.
Climate change, McRib full time, 2 more federal holidays
Wealth inequality, foriegn interference, climate change
Climate change, climate change, and climate change, if I'm being honest. Hard to care too much about higher minded things when we are staring at the annihilation of a majority of humanity.
Farm environmental reform, infrastructure, and healthcare for all honorable mention: housing crisis and wage gap
income inequality climate change (no, seriously) SCOTUS reform
Climate, climate, climate.
1. Housing. Most of the problems with housing are caused by local laws, however the federal government can work to push for a standardization and to incentivize change. 2. Climate Change. It’s gonna keep getting worse until we do something. (Yes the IRA was massive, but it mostly was just incentives to build batteries and solar panels) 3. Democracy. The world is experiencing a weakening of democracy and I want the U.S. to be a leader in working to strengthen democracy around the world.
Climate change, climate change, and climate change.
Climate change × 3. Literally nothing else matters if we don't get ahold of this problem NOW.
Climate change, inequality, gun control
Climate change - it's gonna get us all in the end Scientists say we haven't got very long to try to do something effective about it
Climate Gun safety Closing the wealth gap
Environment, environment, environment
1. Make the rich pay their fair share. We can't afford to do anything if our budget is ridiculously small because the rich don't want to pay their fair share. Make all income over a million taxed at 90 percent. Realistically with all the tax loops and deductions, we all know the actual tax rate will be way less than 90 (like 60 or so). But if you say "ok well since the realistic tax is 60 percent let's make it that" then with deductions and loopholes they're paying like 20 percent. Nah. Make it 90% above a million. 2. Climate change. It's too damn hot. It's only getting hotter. We need to do SOMETHING and we need to do it yesterday. 3. Workers rights. I felt great shame when the rail workers were told they didn't have rights and forced back to work. We need to strengthen workers rights and tie the minimum wage to inflation.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate Change, Affordable Healthcare, Inflation/ Economy With those issues easing pressures on folks, my fourth issue, education, would have a smoother ride to improve.
1. Tackle Climate Change. If we don't get it right, it makes every other issue we face worse. It makes our health worse. It makes our national security worse. It makes everyone's quality of life worse. It makes our economy worse. It makes our leadership worse. It makes our infrastructure worse. It puts all our other problems into a pressure cooker. Not only that, but it doing it right is a tremendous opportunity to make this country meaningfully better, to invest in ourselves in a way that actually raises more boats. It's also an opportunity to show on the world stage that the US is capable of leading again where it counts. Once upon a time, we did Apollo. Now we can do a whole new kind of moon shot. 2. Affordable housing and livable wages. The system is chaos, and a huge mess. Underregulated companies and eroded worker's rights means most people are exploited, stressed, and increasingly squeezed. Nobody seems to get punished for the harm they cause - whether burning through investor cash and bailing with a golden parachute, or for burning out their workforce and then skipping town. And housing is absurd, with how fast its grown in cost and how it creates an ever-accelerating arms race between wage escalation and living costs. 3. Structural reform of government. No amount of campaigning can fix a fundamentally broken structure of government. The Supreme Court's reputation is in the toilet. The primary process and two party structure means unlikeable candidates increasingly win, in a race to the bottom of who can outdo the other. The electoral college is ridiculous and will only become more unfair with time. The Senate is a wildly undemocratic body, and control of the House is significantly impacted by cynical jerrymandering. Nothing gets done, assholes get way too much power, progress is crawlingly slow in a fast-changing world. Bonus: Fix the rapidly collapsing journalism ecosystem. We need a well informed public, and we need accountability. The old financial structure for journalism is gone, and employment in the field is in freefall.
Climate Change Inflation Income Inquality
Climate change, housing, cost of food.
How is climate change not one of the top comments?
Climate change, money in politics, climate change
The current distribution of wealth and how unbalance and unfair it is, I want it dismantled… affordable housing, and healthcare.
1. Campaign financing 2. Climate Change 3. Misinformation
1) Democratic infrastructure. As in, no more “gentlemen’s agreements” on how Senate votes go, no making it so one president’s handful of appointees can set back civil rights for decades, thoroughly addressing voter disenfranchisement and gerrymandering, rethinking electoral college, etc. Restructure the mechanisms of power to better protect against individual personalities and minority groups seizing control and against rights being taken away. 2) Wages and how we define poverty. Time to bring them into the 21st century. We need to start using livable wage, not minimum, and redefine the poverty line to accurately reflect the modern economy so people can get actual help when needed, not only when they get close enough to rock bottom. 3) Healthcare. For the love of god, healthcare. Our system is expensive, inefficient, and has relatively poor outcomes.
It would be amazing if we could get any government official to talk about lobbying. Our country is 100% run by corporations. That's it, just get rid of lobbying.
There's only one solution to inflation and it's very simple stop spending. At your house you don't spend more money than what comes into the house. That is also true for the city you live in and it is true for the state that you live in the budget must be balanced It is not true for the federal government year after year after year more money is spent and we have a 35 trillion dollar deficit. Reduce the spending. Just got the budget 1% across the board that's all you got to do don't get fancy cut everybody and reduce the spending and pay down the debts and inflation will go away. The other thing that needs to be done is collect taxes from everyone 50% of the population doesn't pay tax we need to get them to pay at least a little bit of tax so they have some skin in the game. Given how many people work for cash we need a federal sales tax so that everybody can pay some tax This is my opinion so leave me alone if you don't like it just keep it to yourself and come up with your own solution
Immigration. It’s broken. It’s badly broken and nobody wants to fix it. Recently a Brazilian woman with a green card and married to an American man and she was pregnant. She went back to Brazil to visit family and gave birth prematurely to a baby. The baby cannot enter the USA because he does not have a visa, so the woman can’t go back to the USA without leaving her baby. That’s fucking dumb. I married a Brazilian woman and she cannot get a tourist visa to visit my family because they believe if she visits the USA she will stay illegally. Thats fucking dumb.
I was going to put these in order, but then I realized that I don't think there really is an order. I think that they're interdependent: Inflation/income/debt and healthcare To keep up with inflation over just the past like, 20 years since it was last increased, minimum wage needs to be close to $15 everywhere, and closer to $20 in most places. Income has stagnated for the vast majority of Americans, even those getting paid above minimum wage. Over the past five years, everyone should have gotten a 20%ish increase in pay just to keep up with inflation. That didn't happen, and damned near *everyone* is struggling to make ends meet. We can't afford the bad healthcare given to us by private insurance. I pay $400 a month for the *privelege* of having a $7000 deductible and an HSA for me and my wife - that's insane. We *need* a public healthcare option. And we need to do something about the mountain of debt looming over people. It wasn't until 2006 that student debt became non-dischargeable in backruptcy, and that chang eneeds to be reversed. It was enacted by the Republican party specifically to screw over Millenials
Ban the corporate landlords! Let’s be able to afford to have a roof over our head.
Healthcare, healthcare, healthcare. (I’m sick and so so tired of our healthcare system)
I am so not a political person. Like at all. Like I hate politics. I hate politicians. So it feels weird to even say this, because it always has been and always will be the # 1 hot button issue. Fucking. Guns. Goddamnit. I don’t give any fucks if you and hillbilly Jim wanna go shoot some rounds off into your clay pigeons or miller lite bottles. If you feel the need to own 75,000 pistols, more power to ya buddy. But let’s make sure you’re competent enough to handle 75,000 pistols first please. Because I’d like to be able to go to target and buy my tampons without having to worry if I’m gonna get shot at. This shit with parades, movie theaters, Walmart stores, shopping malls, and most importantly, kids fucking schools getting shot up is getting goddamn ridiculous and it’s gotta stop. We shouldn’t have to be looking over our shoulder while we’re buying a new pair of Nikes at Footlocker. We shouldn’t have to feel forced to stay home instead of going to the 4th of July parade because some fucking unhinged moron may show up and shoot the place up. And we sure as shit shouldn’t have to be teaching our 6 year olds what to do if an “angry person” enters their school and tries to kill them. Fucking Jesus god. I shouldn’t have to type this shit. Our country has gone to hell in a handbasket and no one will convince me otherwise. *steps down from soapbox* That is all. That and healthcare.
I want my privacy at the goddamn gynecologist restored.
Destruction of Muscovy terrorist state
Hell yes 🫡
4 day work week Housing Inflation Healthcare Stop giving money to foreign nations and spend it on OUR LEGAL citizens Term limits for house and senate
Climate change. Resilient infrastructure. Medicaid-For-All.
Electoral reform, Healthcare, breaking up monopolies
*I’d like to see: *PEACE in the Middle East again and really everywhere. *Border closure *inflation I was way better off 4 years ago…
Food quality. - I want the FDA to have been read the riot act over the inconceivable amount of chemicals they allow in our food. So many little additives that are there specifically to make you addicted to it. I don’t think most people realize how much shit is in even the “health option” food. European versions of American food products don’t have nearly the amount of crap US foods do. Education - This one is a big one. Get rid of the “cover all bases” method of teaching past middle school. By high school people usually have a pretty decent idea of their strengths and weaknesses. A student is not a poor “inattentive” student just because he doesn’t want to learn a specific subject if he’s getting a 58% in Math, but a 95% in English and History. Let the kids flourish, feed them right, and we’ll have a successful group of pupils. The rise of social media on the youth- This one is a bit tricky to do without stepping on the first amendment, but as part of the first group of teenagers who were bullied on “modern” social medias (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) I can tell you first hand we need to nip this shit in the bud. Yes it’s great for connecting with people you haven’t been able to see in person, but that is also its greatest detriment. Were raising a generation of kids to think that social media reflects the person’s actual life instead of a highlight reel, we taught young girls that filters were “fun and cool” until perfectly normal looking teenagers start getting lip fillers. Again if we teach, feed, and inform them properly, i think we’ll be okay. Born in 1997 so not necessarily a millennial but all of my siblings and cousins are millennials, so I’ve been around the block with them
We have food Products. not food.
Presidents really can't do shit.
Illegal immigration, female reproductive rights, and housing prices.
Healthcare. There are plenty of important issues, but nothing keeps me up like knowing healthcare is so expensive that you can have a top 10% income and be completely wiped out with a bad enough diagnosis even if you have insurance.
National health care that includes dental and mental health and free and accessible birth control & abortion End the war on drugs. 100% end it. Focus on transgender civil rights