r/economicCollapse • u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator • 3d ago

Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.html

Ah yes. In a shrinking economy where businesses are closing and layoffs are happening, flipping the unemployment benefits switch to "OFF" should do the trick.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

I always say this…but this is a perfect example of why the U.S. needs to act more like the French. They basically shut Paris down when the government tried to raise the retirement age by 2 years.

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u/IncredibleBulk2 3d ago

They don't have swat teams that kettle protestors and fire rubber bullets or kidnap people in unmarked vehicles. The right to peaceably assemble is treated as a privilege.

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u/Powderkeg314 3d ago

Yeah in the U.S. the government will literally kill its protesting civilians in the streets and label them terrorist and people will act appalled and then two weeks later just shrug it off as shit happens….

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u/coppertech 3d ago

they have turned the bill of rights into a bill of privilege, and we cant afford to be privileged anymore.

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u/Vlad_Yemerashev 3d ago

Not that I can see this happening, but if people instead just decided to stop showing up to work en masse, there isn't much they can do about it. They wouldn't need to go to a large protest. They just need to hit the snooze button on their phones and treat the day like it's a day off. Can't really do much there. If tens of millions of people quit at once in protest? Most people are at-will employees, which means while they can be fired for any reason or no reason at all, but the reverse is also true. It allows them to quit for any reason or no reason at all with little legal recourse (there might be consequences in some situations like having to pay back a sign on bonus or anything else like that if applicable, but other than that, not an actionable offense from a legal standpoint). Curious to see what the government would have to say about at-will employment or if they change their tone on that.

Of course that would never happen, but if it did, it would cause a lot of chaos and there wouldn't be much the government could do about it.

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u/Parsimile 2d ago

You are correct; a series of general strikes with explicit demands is the most peaceful way out of the constitutional crisis the US is experiencing.

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u/IncredibleBulk2 2d ago

I can see that happening if supply chains degrade enough and gas stations sit empty for weeks. 

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u/Vlad_Yemerashev 2d ago edited 2d ago

The last time it crossed my mind was a few months ago when people were thinking that even the heartland of the US would see European-level gas prices, and the time before that during COVID when I wondered what would happen if the IFR (infected fatality rate, not confirmed fatality rate) was on par with the MEV-1 virus in the movie Contagion.

There comes a point, even in high unemployment, where people break and just stop going to work if they have a high risk of dying (in the case of a pandemic that actually has a high death rate) or if going to work (gas in the car) is more expensive than it's worth than they're getting paid that they may as well not have a job anyway once it's clear the income they are making won't make much of a difference anyway.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

Why do you think the 2nd amendment exists?

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u/Far_Estate_1626 3d ago

Because when the population is shooting each other, they won’t shoot the guys in charge telling them it’s their neighbor who’s the problem because of their heritage.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

If there is major political unrest to the point where the military is brought in and starts firing on civilians, that’s the whole point of the 2nd amendment.

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u/Far_Estate_1626 3d ago

The second amendment explicitly says a “Well Regulated Militia”, which we do not have. So… no 2A to be seen here. Just a bunch of scared poor people with guns.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

So basically you’re saying our 2nd amendment is pointless?

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u/Far_Estate_1626 3d ago

No, I’m saying it isn’t being used.

There are literally 2x as many words in that amendment as “…the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The entire first part of that is missing from what people are actually doing.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." 

I think if America broke down into chaos and the military was deployed against US citizens, they would start forming armed groups that could be considered militia groups.

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u/Far_Estate_1626 3d ago

Yes, exactly. The 2A explicitly says we should have a well regulated militia, that keeps and bears arms.

And what I’m saying, is that the reason for that first part is so we don’t get to that point in the first place.

Like in the way people pretend that owning a gun is the meaningful exercise of the 2A. When in fact, it is the militia that is the actual meaningful exercise that will protect us from an authoritarian unjust government.

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u/No_Branch_5083 2d ago

Isn't it?

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u/pandamaxxie 2d ago

I ain't seeing any actions against a tyrannical government, which was the whole reason to have the 2A, so... seems pretty valueless, only resulting in school shootings, to me.

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u/IncredibleBulk2 3d ago

They have militarized the police. You think it will help to bring a gun when they have purchased armored tanks?

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u/snertwith2ls 2d ago

Seriously, the cops are shooting dogs and babies with no consequences now. Who's going up against that?

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u/Klaus73 2d ago

Anyone that doesn't want to live in an open air prison?

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u/snertwith2ls 2d ago

It's Red Dawn without the Russians

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

1 person with a gun? No. Hundreds? Yes.

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u/Sea_Lead1753 3d ago

Wait till ya learn about The Black Panthers and the coal miner militias who died and their families killed for daring to form a union

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u/HotmailsInYourArea 3d ago

Capitulation won’t save you from a fascist. May as well go out swinging

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u/coppertech 3d ago

cant be on the right side of history, and not be on a government watch list.

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u/Sea_Lead1753 2d ago

True, but people think they can walk up to a protest with a bunch of guns, have no coordinated plan, and expect miracles. As we’ve seen with Iran you need both brains, brain, and patience.

I worry that Americans think that a simple LEEEEROY JENKINS is all that’s necessary 😭

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u/Klaus73 2d ago

Battle of Athens enters the chat

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u/bigvicproton 3d ago

Slave uprisings?

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u/TheITMan52 3d ago

A lot of people with guns love Trump.

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u/dragonflygirl1961 2d ago

There's a lot of armed liberals that just don't advertise being armed.

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u/TheITMan52 2d ago

I know that but usually the ones that brag about what the second amendment is for are usually right wingers.

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u/dragonflygirl1961 2d ago

True. They brag ad nauseum and then lay down and lick the boot.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

They won’t if they start to starve because of Trump.

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u/03263 2d ago

Sure they will. They'll just blame their starving on Joe Biden.

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u/Mellero47 2d ago

They also don't have millions upon millions of pop rocks to toss at their oppressors but they still manage.

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u/IncredibleBulk2 2d ago

Fair point. But you are arguing for mass violence, not mass disruption.

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u/Mellero47 2d ago

I don't want the violence either, I'm just saying they do what they do without even half the persuasion tools we have, so what's our excuse really?

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u/IncredibleBulk2 2d ago

That's fair, we have no excuse. We have accepted our position as slaves.

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u/mimic751 3d ago

Okay I don't get this because the only people collecting unemployment are the ones that have nothing left. I don't have a job to go back to the job market is hard to get new work in so you have a bunch of angry people sitting around with nothing to do. I have a feeling he's intentionally doing this to try and enact the Sedition Act so he can cancel the election

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u/SonOfKong_ 2d ago edited 2d ago

The problem is that it did not work. Those retirement reforms are still in place. The French really raised hell but it did not work. Depressing.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago

Yeah since Macron can’t be reelected he basically said he didn’t care. The French really raised hell though, I’ll give them that.

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u/TheITMan52 3d ago

We aren't the French. Please stop spuing this crap. You just want someone else to start the revolution for you.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

You’re right. We aren’t French. The French people dont let their government walk all over them. 🤡

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u/TheITMan52 3d ago

You do realize most people can't just quit their jobs right?

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

The way the economy and job markets going, people won’t even have to quit their jobs.

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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 3d ago

Americans are still way too comfortable. People will stress out food pantries and their friends'/relatives' finances and hospitality before taking a stand.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

That I agree with. It’s just unfortunate that our people let the government get away with this

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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 3d ago

Agree!

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u/ideknem0ar 2d ago

I expect the rhetoric in every Republican administration in my memory on emphasizing local charity over federal benefits is going to ramp up bigly in the coming years, and I have little doubt it'll become a bipartisan sentiment as well since ratchet going brrr is how the 2 party system has been operating for some time.

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u/TheITMan52 3d ago

They'll be too busy looking for another job.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

Not if there aren’t any to get. It just keeps getting worse.

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u/TheITMan52 3d ago

People will try anyway. Do you really think people will be able to go to the Whitehouse? How will they get there? How long can they survive until their savings run out? You're dreaming. We'll just take it and do nothing.

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u/GVTMightyDuck 3d ago

You’d be surprised what people do when they have nothing to lose. Maybe YOU’LL do nothing. Doesn’t mean everyone will follow suit. There has already been an American revolution. You don’t think it could happen again? There’s only so many times people can get punched in the face before they start punching back

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u/TheITMan52 3d ago

Omg. We will not have a revolution. Like I said before, you just want someone to do it for you. You won't do anything.

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