"So he claims. An easy claim to make on the intertubes."

Maybe I'm just naive, but I have no reason to doubt that Skeptical has been successful in his or her ventures than Danforth has been able to make a career in finance without any formal training in finance.

Why lie?

"How many times do you have to be corrected on this?"

I guess you're never 100% safe, but if you're vaxxed the probability of dying from COVID drops to an actual risk level that's almost insignificant, especially if you're under age 65. So it's very much an irrational fear.

I'm a swimmer. I like swimming in the open ocean. Yet I never can completely overcome a fear of sharks. But it's a completely irrational fear. In fact I should be far more fearful of drowning. I'm more likely to die of drowning than I am to die of a shark attack, yet it's not even something I think about.

At the same time, I used to wakeboard all the time when I lived in Louisiana, in a lake full of very large alligators. And water moccasins. But I never really gave it much thought.

Jeeze wonder what the service obligations are for those type of deals. I read that army aviation students have to sign a 10 year ADSO.

I think it's 11 year service obligation, once your initial commitment is up.

I took a smaller $100k bonus. $50k up front, $10k each year for the four following years.

And I took it in the desert so it was tax free.

Although many are entitled to bonuses of more than $400k if they choose to take them.

"Probably a fighter pilot too."

For a fighter pilot to be a millionaire would require disciplined savings or to quit being a fighter pilot.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence that it's the same posters who've joined america's fascist uprising."

It still surprises me that you don't openly embrace fascism. A strong authoritarian government that enforces left-wing economic policies?

Hell, the original fascist party in Italy was an off-shoot of the Italian Socialist Party.

You may want to give it a shot.

"And evil agenda called human compassion and responsible governance."

That threshold was met when the government offered free vaccines. It's not even remotely compassionate to require someone else to do something simply to make you feel better or safer or whatever.

And if you're vaxxed, you're safe princess. You can stop worrying.

"To a sociopath, making an effort to save lives is irrational. Therefore it must be part of an evil agenda."

Yes.

There are things far more deadly than COVID.

It also could be that you and those who share your beliefs are genuinely scared of COVID. And some people should be scared and take serious precautions like limiting their exposure to other humans.

But for the vast majority of us, especially those who are vaxxed, COVID is not nearly as much a threat as the government's reaction to COVID.

"That's certainly an apt description of your economics!"

They're not my economics. They're "our"

The fact that you don't like the outcome is your problem. Not anyone else's.

"Greedy people who make the pursuit of the almighty dollar their holy pursuit in life usually do end up with money, but are horrible, self absorbed, narcissistic people who nobody else wants much to do with."

Hmm.

I feel like Skeptical might be the only one here who might offer to buy me a beer.

The rest of you would expect him to buy you one. Especially given that he has more money than you.

"Thank you for concisely stating why we have a student loan problem and why no one should be bailed out of their own bad decisions."

Yup.

No reason for taxpayers to shell out for a degree in hobbies.

"Selfish, reckless disregard for anyone but yourself isn't freedom."

Should he not drive because he might accidentally hit someone? Or someone might hit him.

Your obsession with obligatory vaccinations is irrational. I suspect it is an exercise in authoritarianism. I don't think you could ever justify mandatory vaccines for anyone, but there are 43 million Americans who have had and recovered from COVID...and there is no reason that many of them need to be vaccinated. In fact in Europe, having had and recovered from COVID is regarded as the equivalent of having been vaccinated. You get a card from your doctor stating as much.

And COVID is also not that much of a threat to society writ-large. If you can justify limiting individual choice for this, there's probably very little you wouldn't justify it for.

"I've seen plenty of trash mustaches, but can't think of any explicitly hitler staches."

When the fighter pilot captain gets lectured by the staff colonel that his mustache exceeds the side of his mouth and is out of regs, the response quite often is to trim it down to a Hitler stache, which does comply with regs but is just as annoying to the staff colonel.

Hitler mustaches are not uncommon in the military.

Danforth may be doing a bit of cosplay...the rest are more than willing to keep believing that the concept of economics is nothing more than a sham concocted by the reactionary bourgeoise to oppress the proletariat.

Well...in all fairness I have a BSBA and an MBA, and I couldn't invest my way out of a wet paper sack.

My kids have done better on their investments than I have.

Rush is nerd rock.

"I have a degree in performing arts"

You can get a degree in performing arts?

From an actual college?

And people trust you with their money?

"How in the world can you claim to support freedom while also supporting the War on Drug Users?"

I don't think he's saying that people shouldn't be allowed to smoke weed, but rather that by choosing to smoke weed you forfeit your rights to benefits.

It's almost like argument for the vaccine mandate.

"It also shows that most of their "market forces" arguments were simply expressions of their disdain for those they feel are inferior but were veiled behind supposed economics because they know somewhere in their minds that they're ------- opinions that have more to do with floating their egos than accurately assessing reality."

That's an odd statement?

Why do you think I (or anyone else for that matter) would view someone as inferior because they don't make much money.

Virtually all of us start our adult lives poor.

My first full-time job was as an enlisted sailor in the Navy. I was paid $246 ($451 in 2021$) every two weeks. In the four years I was on active duty, I never broke $1k per month.

When I got out, I went to work installing cabinets for $250 per week. I thought I was rich. I could afford an apartment, a car, cable TV, and still have money left over for beer.

Now that amount wouldn't even cover my car payments.

"For months we heard righties squawk about how people won't work because benefits were too good."

Righties?

Like Andrew Yang?

"Tell us: why does a Trust Fund baby who makes $50,000 in Wal-Mart dividends pay NO income taxes."

What does either one have to do with people getting rich?

"You're right: It takes favorable tax rates, favorable investing rates, carried interest, redlining, inheritance rules, GRATs, and stepped-up basis!"

Really?

Those things make you rich?

Do I need to send in an application or something, because I'm only reasonably well off.

"Show me the society where the winemaker doesn't need the cooper to make his barrels, where the brewer doesn't need the farmer to grow his barley."

Show me the society where the winemaker doesn't pay for the barrels he buys, or the brewer doesn't buy the barley from the farmer.

"That's a line of -------- invented by idiots who didn't earn their keep as much as others but got way more out of it."

How do you figure?

And it's not --------. The rich don't get rich in a vacuum. They get rich because they provide goods or services more effectively than then competition. And we are all the competition.