Thread regarding Charles Schwab Corp. layoffs

Sam Altman thinks the US government will be the "insurer of last resort" once investors realize their investments in AI focused companies are lost and shareholder value is zilch.

Millions of fully employed people rely on SNAP benefits, including active duty US military.

The capital-C Capitalists don't actually believe in capitalism. It's just an entrenched status quo designed to benefit them.

Capitalize the profits, socialize the costs!

The labels and lore around your economic system don't matter as much, it turns out, as how much corruption in your leaders you're willing to tolerate.

@j6 Way off topic. But US capitalism is a lie. We subsidize and allow companies to push costs onto others. True capitalism is a market positive with profit determining said market. When companies can push pollution and health impacts onto non-customers, or obtain materials free as with oil and natural gas in most states, the entirety of capitalism goes away. All that’s before taking 10% of Intel too.

While I'm not going to pretend modern markets are perfect, I get frustrated by the constant 'capitalism is the root of all evil' narrative. It completely ignores the power of personal agency and self-education.
Debating the system is one thing, but what's going to actually help an individual right now is action. Instead of waiting for a systemic fix, pick up a book—not just on finance, but on how to navigate the current economy. That means:
Adjusting your lifestyle to be sustainable for your income.
Gaining transferable skills that make you valuable in any market.
Finding other employment or side projects so you aren't solely reliant on a single income stream.
The best defense against any 'flawed' system is a solid personal financial education and discipline. You have control over your effort and your knowledge, and that's where people need to put their energy

@cs 'Best’ healthcare means people don’t die from treatable conditions because they can’t afford insulin, ER visits, or surgery. Until we fix that, bragging about being the best is like saying you have the best fire department as long as your house is in a rich neighborhood.

The U.S. has some of the best medical technology and specialists in the world but that’s not the same as having the best healthcare system. We rank near the bottom among developed nations in access, affordability, outcomes, and life expectancy. The system works beautifully if you’re rich or insured and terribly for everyone else.

If we had the best healthcare, we wouldn’t have:
The highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world,
Life expectancy that’s been declining,
Medical debt as the #1 cause of bankruptcy,
Millions of uninsured people who avoid care altogether.

Other countries — like France, Germany, Canada, and Japan — cover everyone and still spend half what we do per person. That’s not ‘best,’ that’s broken.

Ah, the old “why can’t we be more like those White Aryan countries in Northern Europe?” complaint. They do everything better.

But wait, we thought liberals hated white Europeans because they conquered the native peoples of the new world and ravaged the environment and spread death and disease and genocide and slavery etc. etc. and are the source of all evil on the planet? But we should emulate them now?

@a4 Yes, layoffs have happened for decades (not thousands of years). But the frequency and the purpose behind them have changed. Historically, layoffs were used in emergencies, not as a quarterly profit tool. Firms like McKinsey sell "efficiency", that is their sales model. But their model depends on showing immediate cost savings, almost always through headcount cuts, even if it undermines long-term capacity, innovation, and institutional knowledge. Once profits dip again, they are called back to "restructure" again. It’s a self-perpetuating business cycle that rewards short-term optics, not sustainable growth.

The US has the best healthcare system in the world. It's just tied to horriable insurance companies and suspicious hospital billing.

Layoffs happen. They have for thousands of years.