Members of Congress trading stocks is insider trading

[stux@mstdn.social]

Bonus toot..

Don't feel sorry for members of Congress for a second btw

They act like they are poor bastards who ONLY earn about 175K (!!). about 3 times the average of the US household

A lot of people who kill for that income and I'm pretty sure the average American works a LOT HARDER then Congress

[nysloth@masto.nyc]

@stux It’s as though the House Speaker wants us to believe that our representatives have never heard of mutual funds or index funds. Their investments could rise or sink with the nation’s markets more broadly. But that would be too easy. The blatant corruption in prediction markets just highlights the preexisting corruption of insider trading.

[fsnatio@mastodon.social]

@stux my 30 year-old daughter finally, after long searching, just got a full-time job that will pay 32k a year. I don't want to hear someone moaning about making ends meet with 174k plus perks.

[suedioh@mastodon.social]

@stux Insider trading is illegal. We lock up criminals here, don't we?

[lilleffie@mstdn.social]

@SueDiOh @stux
This.
Saying we need to ban politicians from insider trading insinuates it is currently legal.
More of “Laws for thee, not for me”

[threadbane@newsie.social]

@stux
How do you ban Congress from insider trading? Great idea, but there is no mechanism to accomplish that given that Congress passes the laws.

[gooba42@mastodon.social]

@stux My solution is bigger but... All their net worth goes into a trust that only buys index funds.

They raise all boats or they get nothing.

[lazarou@mastodon.social]

@stux The USA is just one big con now, since they elected a Conman to run the country into the ground.
Terminal decline.

[failedlyndonlarouchite@mas.to]

@stux

most members of congress actually work damn hard

given how much temptation they are subject to in the form of bribes, both direct and indirect, it would be good to increase their salary, a lot

[trebach@functional.cafe]

@stux Federal minimum wage is $7.25 but localities can increase this. At 30 hours per week, employers have to offer benefits so they'll design schedules so employees only get 29 hours per week or less. 52 weeks * 29 hours * $7.25 = $10933 per year.

They work much harder than Congress and don't have any sort of vacation

[nrmacdonald@mastodon.social]

@stux
It's a club that you could join if you were sufficiently connected

[pomegranate_stew@kind.social]

@trebach @stux
> they'll design schedules

Yes! Many years ago when that number was 40 instead of 30, I was regularly scheduled for 39.5 hours, while making a whole 15 cents more than minimum wage ($3.35 at the time), just so they didn’t have to consider me full time.

Employers have been gaming the system forever because too many of them are absolute bastards.

[stux@mstdn.social]

@failedLyndonLaRouchite You’re a real troll aren’t ya

[pretergeek@mstdn.social]

@stux I always thought that politicians should be volunteer work.
Edit: If we HAVE to have them.

[remywhisker@mastodon.social]

@stux bUt ThEy ArE sO pOoR.

[trebach@functional.cafe]

@gooba42 @stux It'd have to go into a special index that buys stocks evenly then. The indices that you see on the news covers at most 2,000 stocks and they're weighted so some affect the index more than others

[trebach@functional.cafe]

@stux "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." - US Declaration of Independence, 1776

[gooba42@mastodon.social]

@trebach @stux Whatever needs to happen to make it so, we should just do it.

[aachrisg@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@stux congress made Jimmy Carter sell his small _ peanut farm_ to avoid conflicts of interest.

[passwordsarehard4@mastodon.social]

@pomegranate_stew @trebach @stux and that’s not even mentioning tipped employees. If you SHOULD receive over $30 a month in tips they can pay you $2.13 per hour. Why even have a number? It’s so paltry it doesn’t cover the taxes on what customers felt sorry enough to leave you.