He's causing so much damage to this country, it cannot be inept policies. It is planned and it is only getting worse.

How else has anyone not been living paycheck to paycheck? In the age of mass marketing and fast meals or coffee on every block, or notifications that you should buy this because you bought that... And anything you try to watch on updated TV requires a subscription, how else could one live. But still there was once a time where long distance phone calls took your arm and your leg , just to talk 10 minutes was like 60c a minute. That was a lot of moola back then

I was right there with you on that for most of my life until I paid off all of my bills with exception of my mortgage and I got a better paying job. Now I am able to save a little bit of money. Now that Biden is president I don't get to save near as much as I would like to and he wants to raise taxes.

During Trump it was about 54% of the country who were living paycheck-to-paycheck.

If the government reduced it's sized by 95% and stopped regulating everything to death and stopped printing money then the cost of living would plummet. There would be a whole lot more people being able to save money. But that's not their plan. They want power and control and they know they can't get that when people are freer and are happy.

Regulations are needed in some aspects, you can't allow companies to get away with poisoning everyone living around their factories, and corporations shouldn't be allowed to use accounting practices set by the government to get ahead. The government needs to set and regulate corporate accounting practices, and manage how businesses take loans, but as for the little guy, like you and me, it takes a lot of self control, and axe grinding to get to that out of debt point. I have a few more years, and then I'll think about that final mortgage life purchase.

"you can't allow companies to get away with poisoning everyone living around their factories"

I am just amazed. I really don't know where to start with your comment. You are wrong on so many levels.

First off, businesses exist to produce a product or products that they can sell. They tend to believe that their product(s) are better than the rest. They are driven to make their products better because if they don't then they have the potential of losing their business.

The problem is when they keep getting hammered by the government with one regulation after another. It makes it extremely difficult to make their product(s) at an affordable price at the level of quality that will keep them ahead of the competition. Many times the regulations are so oppressive the business owner, CEO, the board of directors, etc. feels like they have no alternative but to engage in unethical and sometimes illegal practices. Had there been no regulations they never ever would have considered that path. But there are a lot of business owners, CEOs or boards of directors (the majority) who would rather make cuts then engage in anything unethical. So they cut their staff, use lower quality materials and anything else they can think of.

At no point is the goal of any business to pollute the environment. No one wakes up in the morning and says I think I want dump sludge in the neighborhood. No one wants to engage in shady accounting practices. They are driven to it by excessive regulations.

Now that accounts for the vast majority of businesses in the world. But there is a dark side. That happens when businesses and governments work in tandem. Businesses end up being supported by tax dollars and because of that they lose the drive to make the best products and to make their customers happy. They don't need to because they can stay in business with tax dollars. All they have to do is make sure some politician(s) have enough cash to get re-elected. And do not be fooled here, the Democrats are just as corrupt as you probably think the Republicans are.

There is a third group of businesses. In order for them to just survive they are forced to send lobbyist to the government to petition the government to not pass harmful legislation that would put them out of business.

What we need is much less regulation and much more freedom. Keep the government and businesses completely separated. No safety nets, no too big to fail, no playing favorites.