#old policies

[eaglesnick]

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” – Peter Drucker

There is much confusion regarding the proposed “national wealth fund” to be created by Rachel Reeves. Many commentators who should know better  - CITYA.M, yahoo finance,  Financial Analyst, to name but three -  describe it as a “sovereign wealth fund” but nothing could be further from the truth.

“A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund comprised of money generated by the government, often derived from a country's surplus reserves. SWFs provide a benefit for a country's economy and its citizens.”  (Investopedia:20/06/24)

This is NOT what Rachel Reeves is proposing.

Reeves is creating a “national wealth fund" not a “sovereign wealth fund” and although many think that the words "national" and “sovereign” are interchangeable in this instance they are not.

The key point to remember is that  a sovereign wealth fund is set up with “surplus reserves”. These can take the form of foreign currency operations, the proceeds of privatisation, balance of payment surpluses, government transfer payments, fiscal surpluses and so forth.  There is no role for private investment in a sovereign wealth fund. A sovereign wealth fund is owned solely by government on behalf of taxpayers, and all profits go to that government for the benefit of its citizens.

What Rachel Reeves is proposing is something totally different.

Labour’s aim is to invest £7.3bn in a national wealth fund:

“to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country...as a "central plank” of its green prosperity plan” (Labour List: 16/06/24)

Although Labours stated ambition of creating 650,000 “good jobs" is to be applauded,  if Reeves had created a “sovereign wealth fund" rather than a “national wealth fund” then the exchequer would also have reaped 100% of the profits generated by her "green prosperity plan".

Alas, this is not  the case. For every £1 of taxpayer’s money invested in the national wealth fund, Reeves expects to attract £3 of private investment. In short, 75% of Reeves "national wealth fund” will be owned by the private sector, and presumably they will be taking 75% of the any profits generated.

I am not saying a national wealth fund is necessarily a bad idea but a sovereign wealth fund would have been so much better and it is misleading and sloppy of commentators to confuse the two.

Reeves herself can also be described as being less than transparent.

“Under the government’s new plans the fund will bring together key institutions and a “compelling proposition” for investors which will mobilise billions more in private investment and “generate a return for the taxpayer.”  (FT Advisor: 09/07/24)

What those “compelling propositions” will be are at present unknown, but it is reasonable to expect some sort of tax concession or taxpayer subsidy will be available to private investors.

This really isn’t very different to what is happening now. In the 2023 Autumn Statement the Government  announced £4.5bn in subsidies for British manufacturing. In addition to subsidies, corporations also  receive tax breaks, the Financial Times informing us:

“UK businesses to receive £27bn in investment tax breaks.” (15/03/23)

How the old system of government subsidies, tax breaks and grants differs from Reeves  “ national wealth fund” remains to be seen. What Reeves should publicly acknowledge is that her new fund is NOT a sovereign wealth fund and that the vast majority of the profits generated by this fund will go to private investors not the British taxpayer.

[thisisadecisionimayregret]

Local politics is so important and you may think "it only impacts people in my city/county/whatever" but it can have much wider impacts

Like a concrete example of this is that in Pennsylvania, local laws in Philly, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny required that companies give paid sick leave to all employees — part time and seasonal, not just full time employees. And now, some companies (including the one I work for) decided that it was easier to make one policy for the whole state of PA that followed all the local laws, instead of changing the policy based on city/county.

So what that means concretely is that now, bc these local laws got passed requiring employees get paid sick leave, everyone else in the state also got paid sick leave even though they didn't live in one of the three places that passed those laws. (well, at least everyone working for the companies with state-wide policies)

Paid sick leave is not a small thing. Being able to call out sick from work and still get paid is huge, especially if you're someone living paycheck to paycheck.

And it only took 3 local laws getting passed to make a change impacting the entire state.

[fallershipping]

Bad Ending - Side B

A freshly widowed Anabel decides to force herself up the ranks of Interpol's higher echelon.

Nothing changes. One life is a sacrifice worth millions more saved.

[navree]

Incorrect, the fact that Biden has dropped out and a candidate with history of supporting medicare for all and being more receptive to a ceasefire in the I/P conflict has made me go from "I cannot morally support the Democratic nominee" to "I am voting for the Democratic nominee despite the fact she isn't perfect in every respect." I'm really happy this played out. The Dems for the most part abandoned the old Obama platform and it feels like its possible an actual progressive agenda could come to pass in my lifetime.

Kamala 2024!

If you weren't going to vote Democratic in this election before Biden dropped out you're a dorkass loser who does not care about any of the issues you're yammering about here and also a fundamentally bad person, and I hope you get run over by a bus.

But you got one thing right in all of this gibberish, Kamala 2024.

[opbackgrounds]

This is a pretty off-hand statement, but it sets up one of the most important moments of Sabaody, when Luffy makes it very clear that he wants to discover what's ahead for himself rather than be told

[bastardcatthings]

*Lando is pushed off track* + WHO TF DID THAT TO MY DRIVER ISTG I WILL KI- *sees it was Max* + oh lol marital spat nvm

[itslookingback]

message to all trans people please survive

[foxgirlmoth]

Okay, lets go through this apparent list of positives that Biden is in favor of.

Trans Rights: There have been multiple laws within states to fully close off especially trans kids rights to medical treatments and more. This is extremely current. Biden puts in minimal effort to look like he's doing anything at all for trans and queer rights, and there haven't really been any efforts aside from doing one or two proposals that immediately get shot down, and he's more than okay with that, hence why there's no longer really any push for this shit still. If you're trans, you can't piss in Utah without the risk of getting a fine right now. Even though these are state laws, the fact that there's been nearly zero effort federally to address this besides the title IX rule, speaks a lot about priorities in this area.

Abortion Access: Are we just forgetting the whole Roe V Wade getting overturned thing that happened in 2022? Are you really trying to say that this is good for abortion access? Abortion access has gotten actively worse.

Environmental Reform: Biden has endorsed extreme oil drilling projects and in general oil companies still love him! Not to mention the train crashes which we'll get to later.

Healthcare Reform: Covid-19 is still around and is sadly predicted to stay around for a long while. Healthcare is still private and a competitive field in the US and that causes major issues as well. If you look this up, you see articles titled along the lines of "Biden has lowered the cost of insurance" and meanwhile it just dropped in 2020 once during the pandemic but has been growing in cost.

Prescription Reform: Reading into this, not much has changed, which isn't surprising under genocide Joe. Drugs in the US are still higher than anywhere else in the world, and with healthcare issues still abundant, this is still a big issue.

Student Loan Forgiveness: Student debt is still extremely high in the US, and while Biden has rolled out some plans for forgiveness, it's a fraction of the debt, and he primarily uses the whole thing to win over swing states. This is a dangling carrot that provides very little overall.

Infrastructure Funding: Train crashes from 2020-present, worldwide, but notice the amount of US crashes! Neat! Quite literally just look up train crashes in the US during his presidency, there's too many to link here. It is also important to remember that Biden signed a bill to prevent rail strikes, preventing a lot of pressure to the government and the economy, which would have been a GOOD THING. Seriously, this guy has fucked up our environment and our rights in multiple ways.

Advocating Racial Equity: Structural racism within the US is still a huge problem, Biden hasn't addressed much. Also people are still in cages on the Mexico/US border (Which has been maintained by every president in office since it was established), with a very recent crackdown on the border.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Just. Look at the racial equity and trans rights sections above. Biden does the bare minimum, loves focusing on swing states, and all around uses the ol' carrot on a stick.

Vaccines and Public Health: Once again look above at sections on healthcare, abortion access, and prescription reform. Its bad. Remember how Covid-19 vaccines aren't being continued for free?

Criminal Justice Reform: This is just structural slavery still. Disproportionate amounts of black people are incarcerated, police are still heavily funded under Biden. He does not care about reforming the justice system, he even supports cops breaking up campus protests! Cool!

Military Support for Israel: Yup! Both sides suck! Biden has a very long history of sure hating Arabic countries though! He's done nothing but ship weapons and participate in the genocide of Palestinian people. Would Trump also do this? Yes. Does this mean this is an issue you should just drop and call a non-issue? No, what the hell are you talking about.

Israel/Hamas Ceasefire: Netanyahu has no plans to accept any actual ceasefire, yet Biden still provides weapons and support. Wow! That sure is weird? I wonder if Biden really cares about a ceasefire or how he just looks publicly.

Biden is not a good president, much less a good human being. You provided such a flimsy chart with zero resources or support behind you, and it just feels like people are just making shit up at this point. Get your heads out of the liberal cesspool you grew up in.

[not-so-superheroine]

[lydiahosek]

[Image ID: A traditional pencil drawing of Mai and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender as young adults. They are shown from the front from the chest up, standing next to each other. They look at each other and smile. Mai says, "Once again, I'd like to thank Fire Lord Zuko for visiting our class today." From outside of the frame, her students say in unison, "Thank you, Fire Lord!" /.End ID]

Maiko Week 2025!

Day 1: Teacher Mai

The highlight of Career Day

[trudeau-official]

What's this "Yaoi" you Americans are speaking of

[cozylittleartblog]

new button sets

feddy || bemdy

[dingodad]

Honestly my main issue with the homestuck wiki is just how informal it is? Like I know we are talking about homestuck we are talking about here but people shoving their troll biology headcanons into an article to make a joke doesn't seem like the best idea for a wiki. On Kanayas article we have such a line as "She proceeds to run up to Gamzee and kick him in the groin bone bulge."

When in the text we have no idea what these trols organs actually are (probably they are just jokes) allowing text like this just further cements community head canons instead of presenting what is formally in the text (or at the very least it should have something like "presumably bone bulge"). When the homestuck fandom is as filled with misinformation as it is, a wiki allowing such edits just seems odd. This isn't the only example of this phenenom either.

Yes I know anyone can edit it and I could prolly go in and fix up all the offending examples but allowing such edits in the first place is more what I have an issue with.

you are arguing with ghosts here man those character biographies have been there since 2010 they're older than some homestuck readers are. you need to take your own advice and make the edit yourself

[lavendertarot]

ngl despite how much I love art that follows awful people in bad situations, I think my favourite theme in mouthwashing has gotta be the ways in which blue collar jobs not only involve intense amounts of physical labour but also mental and emotional labour, especially in the face of an uncaring and supposedly familial corporate sheen. like it's surface level, but it's good and it's real.

[barbiegirldream]

Tighnari's inability to phrase anything in a polite way, but he means it earnestly, really gets me. Tighnari has the warm and fuzzy nature of a cryo abyss herald, but he's really sooo nice, you just don't get it.

[specific-dreamer]

and if i said i wanted to explore the outsiders in an a/b/o verse what then? not in like the horny sense but in the pack dynamic sense

(edit: added the slashes. thanks anon for letting me know the original way i had it was a slur)