True. But although I'm probably one of the most arrogant capitalist snobs ever I definitely believe there are some people who do deserve "free" care, such as people born with disabilities that impede them from holding jobs that are high-paying enough to pay for their treatments and such.
The Economy May Never Recover!
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True. But although I'm probably one of the most arrogant capitalist snobs ever I definitely believe there are some people who do deserve "free" care, such as people born with disabilities that impede them from holding jobs that are high-paying enough to pay for their treatments and such.
No one "deserves free". They might deserve your charity, but that should be your decision.
When people confuse voluntary charity with coercive taxation, is when suddenly every cause is just for redistribution.
I am big on charity. I try to help people until it hurts. But I get fucking pissed when the government takes my money for Caribbean junkets, limo rides and foreign military adventurism. But it is all part and parcel once you can justify stealing for the poor, then it's the kids. Then it's the elderly. Then it's the disabled. The immigrants. Then it is kids in other countries. And on and on. No one stops being poor. No one stops being disabled, and those foreigners are never saved by aid. People get saved through capitalism and charity, not handouts without expectations or supervision.
/rant
I'm with you re voluntary charity. I live in a developing country and can definitely vouch for the harm government stealing in the name of the poor can do. There's a reason 3rd world populism results in more poverty than it was supposed to alleviate.
Those are definitely politically unpalatable options but if things get worse, I can see them being reconsidered. Unfortunately, it will take far more desparate times to reconsider the solutions below...
No nation, in the entire history of mankind, EVER spent its way out of debt.
The only solution is the least politically palatable, and so it will never be implemented:
- Let the insolvent, incapable businesses fail.
- Let the assets transfer to solvent capable hands.
- Let the fiat currencies die.
- Restore sound money.
- Abolish the ratfucking rapist Federal Reserve.
We'll be back on our feet by the end of the year, and so will the rest of the world. BUT - it will never happen, because we are, as a species, stupid, greedy, and amazingly short-sighted.
Wanna know how to catch a monkey? Get a heavy clay jar with a small opening. Put a nice fresh nut inside. The monkey will reach in, grab the nut, and close his fist around it. With his fist closed, the monkey cannot pull his arm out and so is trapped by the weight of the jar.
No matter that he's slated to be on the menu if he stays like that, the stoopid monkey WILL NOT LET GO OF THE NUT.
That's us right there. We'll never let go of the nut.
I guess the Bush tax cuts, over bloated programs, practically doubling Americas national debt, and immersing the country in a useless occupation that is costing billions monthly was fine work?
How do you prescribe America get out of the blackhole that the douchebag Bush, and his Republican henchmen for hire created?
FYI, Obama is virtually the same candidate as Bush. Also the same as McCain. They pretend to be different but when it comes down to it they aren't.
I hate when people say that we can't believe in the free market/republican values because the Republicans screwed shit up during the last 8 years. Thats the biggest line of bullshit ever. The Republicans failed, so hey, lets just believe in whatever the Democrats do.
Lets just remember that the Bush did not cause this whole mess. Lets not forget that the Democrats have controlled congress for the last few years and did NOTHING about any of this. Lets not forget that Obama is now passing the largest spending bill in world history after Bush passed one half as large which was an epic failure. But hey, if 600 billion didn't work, lets throw another 1.5 trillion at the problem and hope it goes away. That sounds like a GREAT idea!
Obama = Bush
Democrats = Republicans
They all believe in foreign intervention and building our empire.
They all believe in an increase in government power.
They all are fiscally irresponsible.
Absolutely. You don't work your way up through Chicago politics from a very young age, Be Senator for a year and then get to speak at the Democratic convention, then get the backing to run for President unless a lot of powerful people like you.
They like you because they know they can control you. That you wont rock the boat.
If anyone thinks they can turn on a TV and see them hyping the shit out of someone that actually cares about the people is delusional.
Obama has not closed Gitmo prison. He has vague plans for doing it at some time.
He has not changed Defense Policy. Or even the Sec of Defense. How many Defense secretarys get to stay even not during a war?
He has not given universal healthcare.
Or jobs.
Or an optimism that is catching.
He is a new package on the same crap.
What the fuck? Is this true? We're giving them half our money already for fuck's sake. Stop wasting it on redistribution and ridiculous wars, and if we really want to go to war, at least do it with a country that actually has oil for us to steal.
The unfortunate reality is that the stimulus bill will work.
Let me explain.
This stimulus package is the largest plate of spaghetti thrown against the wall in our nation's history. Some of that spaghetti is inevitably going to stick. Jobs will be created. Housing prices will lift. Stocks will recover.
As a result, the "average" citizen who is unwilling to think critically will perceive the stimulus to be successful. In effect, they don't know any better. That's unfortunate because the delusion of the populace will bury any review of what better-designed plans would have wrought.
Even today, as history continues to clarify the misconceptions of the past, most people still have the wrong idea about FDR's efforts, Kennedy's, and Clinton's. The same will likely be true of Obama's.
One day, 20 years from now, you'll say to someone, "Obama's stimulus package was a piece of crap." And that person will reply, "You're nuts. It created jobs, lifted housing prices, and helped stocks recover."
And you'll sigh, wishing you were surrounded by people who dared to think critically.
Let me explain.
This stimulus package is the largest plate of spaghetti thrown against the wall in our nation's history. Some of that spaghetti is inevitably going to stick. Jobs will be created. Housing prices will lift. Stocks will recover.
As a result, the "average" citizen who is unwilling to think critically will perceive the stimulus to be successful. In effect, they don't know any better. That's unfortunate because the delusion of the populace will bury any review of what better-designed plans would have wrought.
Even today, as history continues to clarify the misconceptions of the past, most people still have the wrong idea about FDR's efforts, Kennedy's, and Clinton's. The same will likely be true of Obama's.
One day, 20 years from now, you'll say to someone, "Obama's stimulus package was a piece of crap." And that person will reply, "You're nuts. It created jobs, lifted housing prices, and helped stocks recover."
And you'll sigh, wishing you were surrounded by people who dared to think critically.
I'm still stacking my papers...
... then again, all my investments are fucked for the moment, but, I'm not taking any money out of them for many many years.
... then again, all my investments are fucked for the moment, but, I'm not taking any money out of them for many many years.
Stop government spending, cut taxes (to encourage private sector investment and growth) and raise interest rates.
Let the people who thrived under Bush's bad policies fail.
Instead, Obama is doing exactly what Bush did, just catering to a few different special interests on the fringes.
Obama is just a front man. Governments are run by bureaucrats, not elected officials. That is why no one challenges the education system, or abortion, immigration, or taxes or anti-gun legislation, or the monetary system.
Guys like Bush and Obama are just there to make you feel good (or bad) and to give you someone to focus on.
I heard some lady on TV say, "if we can't trust our leaders, who can we trust?"
The answer that dumb bitch couldn't even imagine is,
Trust yourself.
If you don't trust yourself, but trust professional liars (politicians), you deserve what you get.
Haha, fuck leaving money in the stock market. I took what I had left and put it into good old fashion dirt.
Malign government spending all you want, but it's frickin' economics 101 guys.
GDP = C + I + G + NX
GDP = gross domestic product, the primary measure of aggregate economic activity
C = private consumption, or people buying shit -> tanking faster than any time in history
I = private investment, i.e. investing in real estate, tangible & intangible forms of capital -> in the toilet and will remain frozen until the banking system is fixed which is a long-ass time away unless we wipe the fuckers out and put them in receivership, or in other scary words, temporarily nationalize them.
G = our favorite bugaboo, government spending
NX = net exports -> we've run a trade deficit since the late '60s, no way we can export our way back to stability, especially since international markets are closely correlated after all, giving us a global recession.
Cutting taxes will not stimulate private investment if companies can't borrow, they'll just hoard $ on their balance sheets like all of the banks are doing with the bailout money. It's not greedy or corrupt, it's the right thing to do from a self-interested corporate survival perspective. Besides cutting corporate taxes doesn't mean shit if they aren't posting profits.
Raising interest rates to "natural levels" will only smother private consumption and investment further, making the cost of debt in a recessionary environment completely unpalatable, if it were even available in the 1st place.
The fact is, our demographics and entire economic structure demand that GDP continues to grow. I mean hell, for capitalism to make any sense at all at a macro level, it's gotta.
So if you buy that and agree that private consumption and investment are critically wounded, what other alternatives are there? There aren't except putting our heads in the sand and screaming "big bad government" while we all stand in bread lines.
For all its warts, inefficiencies, corruption, and distasteful side effects, government spending is the only card we have that can be played big enough and fast enough in a coordinated fashion to have any hope of kick-starting things out of this death spiral. Hell we need it just to stagger along at this point.
I'm not arguing composition of the spending, how it's administered and distributed, or by whom, etc. Lots to disagree with on the current proposal and the players steering the ship.
But whatever it is, it needs to be big and we shouldn't be pussies about it. Now is not the time for myopic dogma.
GDP = C + I + G + NX
GDP = gross domestic product, the primary measure of aggregate economic activity
C = private consumption, or people buying shit -> tanking faster than any time in history
I = private investment, i.e. investing in real estate, tangible & intangible forms of capital -> in the toilet and will remain frozen until the banking system is fixed which is a long-ass time away unless we wipe the fuckers out and put them in receivership, or in other scary words, temporarily nationalize them.
G = our favorite bugaboo, government spending
NX = net exports -> we've run a trade deficit since the late '60s, no way we can export our way back to stability, especially since international markets are closely correlated after all, giving us a global recession.
Cutting taxes will not stimulate private investment if companies can't borrow, they'll just hoard $ on their balance sheets like all of the banks are doing with the bailout money. It's not greedy or corrupt, it's the right thing to do from a self-interested corporate survival perspective. Besides cutting corporate taxes doesn't mean shit if they aren't posting profits.
Raising interest rates to "natural levels" will only smother private consumption and investment further, making the cost of debt in a recessionary environment completely unpalatable, if it were even available in the 1st place.
The fact is, our demographics and entire economic structure demand that GDP continues to grow. I mean hell, for capitalism to make any sense at all at a macro level, it's gotta.
So if you buy that and agree that private consumption and investment are critically wounded, what other alternatives are there? There aren't except putting our heads in the sand and screaming "big bad government" while we all stand in bread lines.
For all its warts, inefficiencies, corruption, and distasteful side effects, government spending is the only card we have that can be played big enough and fast enough in a coordinated fashion to have any hope of kick-starting things out of this death spiral. Hell we need it just to stagger along at this point.
I'm not arguing composition of the spending, how it's administered and distributed, or by whom, etc. Lots to disagree with on the current proposal and the players steering the ship.
But whatever it is, it needs to be big and we shouldn't be pussies about it. Now is not the time for myopic dogma.
Well thats the problem BrooklynBlue. The United States cannot keep going like it has been. We have to fundamentally change our ways from over consuming to producing. The consumption can't keep going forever, so eventually it will end one way or another. If we prolong this now, it will only be worse in the future.
People dont NEED new cars every year. People don't NEED 5 HDTV's in their homes. People don't need to own 2 houses. The debt has caught up to the American consumer and he has finally realized how fucking greedy and fiscally irresponsible he has been.
Lets get it over with. Let this consumption based economy fail and let the entrepreneurs turn it back into a production based economy which gave us this prosperous life in the first place.
People dont NEED new cars every year. People don't NEED 5 HDTV's in their homes. People don't need to own 2 houses. The debt has caught up to the American consumer and he has finally realized how fucking greedy and fiscally irresponsible he has been.
Lets get it over with. Let this consumption based economy fail and let the entrepreneurs turn it back into a production based economy which gave us this prosperous life in the first place.
If the US government wanted to jump-start the biggest recovery that we've ever seen, they could do it easily.
Immediately cut all corporate taxes on big business that has a significant US presence by 1/2. Follow this by tax incentives for growth.
Cut capital gains taxes by 75%.
Cut income taxes by 1/2 on those who make more than $75,000 a year, or couples who make more than $120,000.
Make the US an attractive place for the rich to keep their money and for corporations to stay here.
Give tax incentives for businesses to provide health care and other care for their employees that the government currently pays for.
Then cut spending on those items.
Immediately cut all corporate taxes on big business that has a significant US presence by 1/2. Follow this by tax incentives for growth.
Cut capital gains taxes by 75%.
Cut income taxes by 1/2 on those who make more than $75,000 a year, or couples who make more than $120,000.
Make the US an attractive place for the rich to keep their money and for corporations to stay here.
Give tax incentives for businesses to provide health care and other care for their employees that the government currently pays for.
Then cut spending on those items.
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