Ian Welsh

OG political blogger. Predicted the 2007 collapse. Read: , Support: - @ianwelsh.bsky.social

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

"How To Think."

Thinking well is not for the faint-hearted. If you do it properly you will often come to conclusions you hate: reality is rarely as we would have it be: this is not the best of all possible worlds. You must be brave and willing to endure discomfort to think well.

[Dark Road Games @dark_road_games]

Sometimes I forget how "normies" see the world. There are people out there that believe "consumers just decided to switch to streaming and give up physical media".
Youtube lost money for a decade before it made a profit.
Spotify lost money for 17 years.
None of this is accidental or organic. People didn't "choose" these systems. They outright rejected them for literally decades while these systems operated at a loss that made competition with them impossible, funded by people who wanted to change the world into what we have now. A system where you own nothing, consume whatever is offered on-demand and nothing else, and you have no privacy or anonymity.

Netflix killed Blockbuster with by-mail PHYSICAL MEDIA at a loss. The entire time they were eating Blockbuster's business they were losing money. After Blockbuster died, Netflix phased out physical media and I remember the severe backlash, but the choice was streaming or nothing. Still many (maybe most) people just cobbled together private collections from bargain bins and garage sales. Netflix continued to lose money....10 BILLION dollars of loses in the 2010s even after Blockbuster went out of business.

Understand the truth, that a cabal of global institutional investors funded companies that nobody wanted for literally decades at a cost of untold billions of dollars....until there was NOTHING ELSE LEFT for you to use.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@jamisc1968 top marginal, of course. You won't pay that rate on the first few hundred thousand. And if that's isn't enough for you, tough.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

Really amazed at all the Canadians who wold rather cut pensions than raise taxes on rich people.

This lack of compassion is the most un-Canadian thing.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@jamisc1968 I'm fine with having less immigrants.

And 54% as a top rate is much less than it was when we had a much better economy so no, I don't think it's enough.

People complain so much, but the economy of the 50s and 60s the rate was as high as 90%.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Natureboy1972 Well, you can go live somewhere where there is no taxation. Somalia say. I hear it's nice there.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Simon_Cleret Huh? That's not what I said at all. Dishonesty earns a block.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@trequor_ Alberta runs its affairs like crap and has for decades. Used to be a well run province, but that's long in the past.

And your expensive oil is going away, the entire world is moving to EVs.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@bichen_bob @Caprico47634524 Yes. Back when left wing policies were in place, Canadians were far better off. We've spent 50 years dropping taxes and pandering to the rich, and gotten poorer every year.

But it's left wingers who are clueless, according to people like you.

Listen to yourself.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Simon_Cleret And many of them aren't rich. Not all Boomers are rich, that's how statistics work.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@syeredward1 Ok, you made me laugh.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@OneTooManyMikes Well, another learning opportunity for you, since you're wrong again.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@STargayen Well, the best economy we ever had, and the most industry was during periods where the top marginal tax rate was 70 to 90%

so no.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Kn1ne Well, they sure won't see it if you cut it.

Silly fuckers, you'll be in worse shape to handle no pensions than Boomers and Xers are.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@BeansDream @Caprico47634524 I was alive back then, and an adult, and trust me, there were always boondoggles.

We've become a lot more corrupt though, and the spending on that is minor compared to money going to rich cronies.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Cindycoombs4 Yes, the cuts to disability have been completely savage, though that's more of a provincial thing. But there's no way anyone call live on $1400 a month given how much rent has increased.

I'm sorry you're in this situation.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@arckapone They don't waste it all so you live in the world you want.

Perhaps you've gone to a doctor or hospital recently? Driven on a road? Used electricity?

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Bullseye_DM @dismalcode Before universal pensions the old were much poorer than the general population. And while I get the Boomer hatred, Xers and Millenials are cutting their own throats with things like this.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@Bullseye_DM @dismalcode Yeah, the main issue with that is that when you make a program non-universal it loses support. There's a reason, FDR, for example, made Social Security for everyone.

Whatever one thinks, there are better ways to save or get money than cutting pensions of people who do need them.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@AmericaRus2024 Ah, that's compassion for you. I wonder if you claim to be Christian.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@JGrayFEFD2 agreed. But that's a domestic political issue, because we have so many Ukrainians (mostly from before the war). Most of them live in the prairies.

[Ian Welsh @iwelsh]

@JIMBO12456334 Yes. But not only, and there are poor boomers. And those boomers aren't the ones who screwed things up for everyone else.