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Comment by jmclnx | Hacker News Reader

This specific question I cannot answer, but I think in the long run, people with US gov bonds will get through OK, maybe just a delay payments and they may get a bit more from the US due to the delay.

I think for "main street", it will be a disaster. The fallout could rival the 1930's depression and people's 401Ks will probably loose 30% to 40% of their value.

Why Wall Street is still backing these GOP idiots is beyond me. We seem to be in a shift of US Party priorities. Seems the Dems are heading to support businesses while pushing social conscience. Seems some in the GOP is trying to do what they can to steal from Social Security/Medicare and crash world economy.

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There are 2 political parties - they cannot possibly encompass all the wants, desires, priorities of any individual except one that blindly follows every party plank. We also have an openly pay-to-play patronage system. In this system it’s more important to financially support individual politicians who have power and influence over your specific industry sectors and priorities. Therefore I allocate assets to certain politicians that benefit my companies, regardless of political party. That said I tend to favor republicans more because they generally are more pro-business.

> I tend to favor republicans more because they generally are more pro-business.

This POV is very hard to support today. Both parties give full throated support to "business" and only disagree on implementation details.

On its face that sounds right but when I look at my priorities the boosters are mostly republicans

What are your priorities?

My priorities are not popular on HN. My username provides one, oil and gas is another, educational choice is yet another. Taxation is theft, etc. etc.

>Taxation is theft,

I hope you refrain from using stolen property like roads, parks, and GPS.

Both want businesses to thrive, but Republicans want all obstacles removed from business growth, and tend to ignore paths of sustainable growth. Republicans also push for lower taxes, which makes sense if one is wealthy and doesn't need to rely on an external support system.

The odd part comes from the package-deal associated with Republicans: right-wing extremists. Democrats have been okay keeping extreme left-wing out of most policies, but Republicans seem to be increasing acceptance.

> The odd part comes from the package-deal associated with Republicans: right-wing extremists. Democrats have been okay keeping extreme left-wing out of most policies, but Republicans seem to be increasing acceptance.

My theory on this is that Republicans from roughly the 80s or maybe a little before got too good with the propaganda. Because of that and the loose party system we have in the US, people who grew up on conservative propaganda are now prominent elected officials and the cycle reinforces itself.

Either that or it's just grifters who have realized there is no bottom with a substantial portion of "the base". It's probably a combination.

The Republicans are cancer and the Democrats are artificial cancer.

That’s a very biased take on things, evidenced by dismissing the other side as idiots.

A more balanced take might be, why does the US end up with such a high proportion of corrupt idiots on both sides of the political spectrum in Congress and the Senate?

One side complains about scary theoretical possible actions, while the other is defending against destructive attempts to overthrow the government led by the leader the first party. The both sides argument doesn't really work anymore.

I don’t buy that argument. The extremest people on the left are doing ridiculous things as well. Like turning a blind eye to shoplifting or illegal immigration. Not on the same scale as overthrowing the government, I concede.

If enough of you guys on both sides can’t see that there are rational, reasonable people on both sides and come together, that will be end of the American empire. It will end in civil war, complete with nuclear Armageddon for the USA. Let us hope there is enough common ground to avoid that outcome.

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