Posts by Larry Collins19

Jacob Lee11 said:Warming up does at least two things...
- it lowers your risk of getting hurt
- by loosening everything up, your body gets more mobile, so you can jump higher and stuff once you're ready.

I honestly wonder if stretching—especially the intense kind—is actually helpful before you even start warming up. I think there was some study a few years back suggesting that warming up is basically the same as hitting max muscle strain. So if you stretch too hard, your muscles might not hit their peak strength for a while because they're just wiped out. That applies to heavy stretching, anyway. Apparently, light stretching cools the muscles down, so why would you want to undo all that progress from warming up by stretching right after? And yet, every pro sports team in the US warms up and then stretches before the big game...

Warm up? Definitely, and it keeps you from getting injured, but doing static stretching before a workout is a bad move because it totally tanks your muscle output—if I remember correctly, it's like a 30% drop...

Sandra Williams70 said:Just so we're clear—with accounts at JP Morgan Chase, and I'm certain this applies across the entire European Union—the fee for using an ATM in any foreign country is a mere 1%.

It really all comes down to which bank you use and what kind of account you're holding... honestly, plenty of banks won't even charge you a dime if you keep a decent balance in there, like anywhere from $50K to $200K depending on the specific bank and where you are in the States.

I mean, if you’re already convinced that banks and bankers are total scumbags, why aren't you pushing for the government to just stop paying back foreign debt altogether, instead of arguing that they should basically rob private citizens here in the States just to bail out those loans for the banks?

Eric Perez9 said:The way things have been run up until now has been a bit of a mess. It makes you wonder how much we can actually fix, but I think we should at least try to change the game for the future by building a whole new system.

Getting rid of the second pillar isn't the answer—honestly, that feels like a total scam. If we scrapped it, we'd claw back about $4 billion. That would bring our deficit down from $12 billion to just $7 billion.
See, there’s about $30 billion in capital sitting in that second pillar. If we used those funds to pay down the national debt, we wouldn't just lower the principal; we'd also slash the interest payments. That would save the Treasury several billion more in the long run.
Look at it this way: if the national debt is $150 billion and we knock $30 billion off that—which is 20%—then our interest costs would also drop by 20%. Right now, we're spending roughly $24 billion just on debt service. A 20% cut there means saving $4.8 billion.

So, let's do the math: $12 billion gap minus the $5 billion from the second pillar, minus the $4.8 billion saved on interest... we're left with a shortfall of only $2.2 billion.
And if we implemented some debt offsetting, the situation would look even better. The truth is, while the government owes money, plenty of people and companies owe the government in unpaid taxes and social security contributions. By offsetting those debts, we could really stabilize the pension system by tackling the issue of people dodging their mandatory contributions.

What an idiot!

So what, you're basically advocating for seizing the second pillar? At this rate, why don't we just go ahead and confiscate everyone's private savings accounts to wipe out the national debt once and for all? 😁

Andrew Mellon once said regarding the Great Depression: "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system." Honestly, that looks like the fastest way out for America too...

And you’re out here arguing against inflation, yet somehow claiming it's one of the things that would actually fix the crisis... :P

wiredpilot19 said:Is there any way to open a bank account in the US without actually flying out there myself? I was wondering if maybe there's an American bank with a branch somewhere near me here in the States?

If you've already got a tax ID, it isn't much of a hurdle, though I can't quite remember if you can just pull that online... You might want to poke around the websites of the major players to see what's possible (Bank of America, Citibank, or Wells Fargo). If you're looking for a global institution with branches closer to home, maybe check out JPMorgan Chase or Citibank, or if we're talking serious money, look into Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley...

The USA isn't handing out any special tariff breaks to China. Besides, exports to the States have already cratered... Honestly, those Chinese investors were just buying up T-bonds because they had absolutely nothing better to do with their massive surplus, and it turned out to be their best move. They weren't doing it because the USA told them to, they were doing it because it actually made sense for them :P

urbanhawk85 said:For a while, I thought investing in the yuan was a smart move. However, now that I see Clintonism is negotiating the sale of U.S. bonds—essentially offloading our debt onto China—everything is looking pretty questionable.

The way the Chinese are being forced to play this hand is terrifying. They’ll end up buying foreign debt that was created specifically to exploit them! 😂
Clinton urges China to keep buying U.S. debt

Someone is definitely going to pay the price for this!😲

And why on earth would anyone think a Chinese person gives a single damn what Clintonism thinks...
The Chinese will buy T-bonds whenever it suits their own interests, not just because someone tells them to...

Yeah, I guess it’s better to just buy all that junk produced by those greedy American tycoons and thieves...