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comment by kleinbl00

So fun fact for our foreign friends: The principle difference between the American federal government and American state governments is the federal government can practice deficit spending. Use the money, then owe people, then maybe get it back someday. State governments have to balance. They either spend what they got from last year's tax revenues or they have to sell bonds like a corporation.

    That’s greater than the 2019 K-12 education budget for every state combined, or more than twice the amount spent that year on state roads and other transportation infrastructure, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

There's a big part of our world economy right now that exists because central banks summoned the money like demons from a pentagram. There's a big part of our world economy that can't do that.





coffeesp00ns  ·  1243 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    State governments have to balance.

Our municipal governments work like that in relation to our provinces. They function as what we label "Creatures of the province", meaning that really they're just doing what work the province doesn't want to have to deal with on an administrative level.

It's incredibly annoying and leads to our provincial government meddling in the municipal affairs of our largest city. Which is ... Annoying. Yes, I realize I'm repeating that word but I'm so overloaded with negative emotions at this point in the year that I can't even bring myself to a more focused and pointed term for the banal daily evils of provincial politics (especially when we have more pressing provincial issues).

however, the point I want to bring up is that while you're right that central banks have summoned that money (I love your image, by the way, It's fantastic and apt as per usual), most functioning federal governments have been supporting their smaller provincial and state counterparts instead of actively stymying them as your federal government has. Your government could choose to, say, buy state bonds to keep your states afloat.

It has chosen not to.

And I think that this is something that's important to keep in mind in the discussion around this article. None of that had to happen. Choices were made - indeed, they're described here. So questioning who benefits from those choices is pretty important.

kleinbl00  ·  1242 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sorry for the delay I was temporarily gobsmacked by the realization that you guys are still suffering under the Ford dynasty.

You're absolutely right - in much of the world, provincial and municipal governments aren't at war with their federal governments. The debt has been undertaken to provide a much more equal cushion against hardship than it has in the United States. Aid has not been aligned with ideology in most other places. It's been appalling to see how quickly the United States can emulate a banana republic.

I used to think that liberals valued empathy while conservatives valued fairness. I've come around to the notion that liberals have empathy while conservatives lack it. Jon Ronson reported in The Psychopath Test that something like ten percent of humans are clinical sociopaths; you could tell me they're all Republican politicians and I'd totally believe you.

This could have been SO EASY. "So Dr. Fauci - I'm told we're facing a gigantic pandemic, whatever that means, and that the principle demographic likely to be affected is my own voters. Tell me what I need to do to save their skin, my skin, and kick a bunch of work back to my donors in the spirit of war profiteering." Mutherfucker would be rich AF, beloved by all and sailing into his fourth term. "Vote Don Jr - his dad only let 80,000 people die of the China Virus."

I see that Florida is still tied between Biden and Trump and I sincerely yearn to see it swallowed by the Atlantic.

coffeesp00ns  ·  1242 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I see that Florida is still tied between Biden and Trump and I sincerely yearn to see it swallowed by the Atlantic.

and also,

Further, Idunno what your opinion of Sarah Kendzior is, but if you want to be driven to day-drink then have a listen to this: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/381-radio-party-lines/episode/15806135-party-in-the-u.s.a-what-could-possibly-go-wrong