Tell me...What would YOU do about this economic mess?

What objection can there be to simply ensuring full employment of resources in the market for labor via unemployment compensation that bears true witness to our own laws regarding employment at will?

 

If we look at this issue from a world-view, we might believe that a weakening USA and stronger China, India, Russia, etc. will force some interesting changes on the USA. Although we remain the most formidable nation on Earth, this can change. Even something out of our control, like a major natural disaster, can push the USA into uncharted territory.

If we look at this issue from our personal footprint, for those today who are suffering I suspect this will continue for many more years. For those just starting out, I would recommend they stay at home as long as possible, get the most education they can, try to find solid employment, avoid debt like it's the plague by renting/leasing and live on 75% of their net income, and buy a piece of land in a place which they believe if all hell broke out it would be a place they could live forever...

 

Yes I agree but if there are blatant policy problems which can negatively effect lots of people, especially involving one's finances, IMO government will do right. But...this does not excuse the greed and ignorance of people and investors in how they spend their money.

Regarding derivatives and other creative financial tools, each of us need to know what we are doing. For me I'm not smart enough so I avoid high-risk get-rich-quick crap. If others wish to get involved, then when things don't work out so well, they need to go no further than to look in their mirror...

 

Our dwindling tax base and the interest on 14 trillion dollars of debt has us in uncharted territory. I just think the problem is too big to fix.

What is going to happen if the government is incapable of fixing the economic disaster we are in?

How can they fix it?

Do they have the will power, courage and moral strength to made tough decisions?

I little faith... the more I learn the LESS faith I have.

 

After WWII, we had an even greater debt relative to GDP. 120% of GDP.

But the "greatest generation" paid top tax rates up to 91% and by 1981 the debt was only 32% of GDP.

Then the Pass the Buck Generation took over. And with its current group of panderers gaining power, aka the Tea Party, I agree there's less reason to have faith.

 

Your pre-prepared post is not relevant in any way to the post you responded to.

 

Their war ended... ours has no end in sight.

 

I'd stop taxing businesses PERIOD. NO taxation for businesses of ANY kind.

Yeah, I know I'm a "liberal" so to speak. That does NOT mean that I support taxation on businesses because it does nothing but make them LEAVE and take jobs with them, from the area that taxes them!! DERRR!!!!

I DO however, support taking away these tax cuts for rich INDIVIDUALS. (Notice that taxing businesses is not the same as taxing individuals). Bush tax cuts, unsurprisingly, have coincided with the Hell that is the 2000's.

I'd make it ILLEGAL for these da*n greedy dickwad employers to hire NOTHING but illegal Mexicans, that way maybe they'd *GASP* give jobs to US instead.

I'd cut down welfare that way people didn't abuse the system quite as much.

I'd END THE WAR ON DRUGS. Civilly I'm a libertarian, and you should be able to do whatever you want to your own body. Also, it's a HUGE waste of money.



Lastly..I'd make obtaining natural resources be performed by public employees who were paid little, as opposed to greedy gouging private companies who want to short-circuit the global economy by gouging everyone for copper, OIL, etc. etc. etc.

Many of you will disagree that these things would benefit the overall state of the economy. Indeed, it WOULD make it so that the rich weren't quite as rich. BOOO HOOOO.

On the other hand, the common person would actually not be hurting quite as badly. *GASP*

 

Actually since most businesses are Partnerships and Sole Proprietorships yes it is the same thing.

 

It's already illegal to hire illegal aliens.

 

How?

 

So you would hire illegal aliens then?

 

Require them to pass a drug test. If they can afford drugs they can afford food and rent.

But that's unconstitutional based on Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure.

So I guess we'll just have to NOT raise the debt ceiling and shut down the government.

 

Why not simply end our wars on abstractions and claim it is during times of lowering taxes?

 

The interest on the $14 trillion is only $200 billion per year. This year we are spending $3.5 trillion, so the service on the debt is only 6% of our spending! If we compare the $200 billion to federal income of $2.1 trillion, it's still only about 9.5% of our income. This nation could easily take $200 billion from military spending to pay the debt service...so it's really just a matter of spending priorities.

The government 'cannot fix' our economic problems! The government can intervene and subsidize and stimulate and review commerce policies, etc. but growing the economy and creating more taxable income needs to happen in the private sector. One thing the government can do is make sure they are not over-regulating, and over-taxing, and over-burdening industry...

 

Well, in order to deal with taxation, we need to meet our benchmark for federal tax revenue, which is 18% of the GDP. My graph from before indicated that Obama in his first two years and Bush2 during his 8 years were not able to reach the benchmark for adequate federal revenue.

Over-regulation is a vague concept. I would consider small businesses and some corporations over-regulated, but the largest financial institutions and the most consolidated corporations drastically deregulated. The problem is we have "one size fits all" regulations on businesses, and that shouldn't be the case.

 

In my opinion, we would need less regulation and micromanagement of the private sector, simply by ensuring full employment in the market for labor; using existing laws and existing infrastructure.

We could also solve official poverty in the process and reduce the need for more, rather than less, public sector intervention in private sector markets as a result.

Consider that micromanagement of our tax codes could be viewed as a form of pandering to specific constituencies affected by those changes in the tax code, without actually solving any of our social dilemmas.

Correcting for market inefficiencies could be viewed as one function of Government. The market for labor is especially amenable to correction for inefficiency simply because the infrastructure and our laws already exist regarding employment at will.

 

Interest is often compounded, which means that interest is earned on prior interest in addition to the principal. Compound interest grows at an exponential rate and its mathematical impossible to repay.

...and we are still in several wars.. unlike after WW2... so we continue to borrow and spend.

Take a moment and review this article in the NY times

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/the-federal-debt-when-compound-interest-is-crushing/

I see some regulating is essential.... what would we be paying to keep out lights on if not for the anti-trust regulations that were implemented 100 years ago. They would enjoy profit margins like drug companies... and we couldn't afford to keep our computers on long enough to discuss these ideas.

 

Bring back protectionism, make sure tariffs are high enough to be cheaper than foreign labor is saving, then do away with all the internal regulations, which have proven to serve large firms, stunting start ups in known industries. When you add transport costs on top, it would be a no brainer for people to make stuff here again, especially when this is where the biggest market is at for most of the junk being made in China, Mexico, etc. We not only want large firms bringing jobs back but a green light for new entrepreneurs to go into business for themselves. Do away with the FED, erase all the debt owed to it(no one can complain because it isn't private right?), and America would have a 30 trillion GDP within a decade. Don't put tariffs on raw materials our manufacturers need, and all will be right as rain.

 

Well then I'd make it so that they couldn't have this preference for Mexicans that they seem to have.

 

There's only one thing young people can do to improve the economy. That would be prayer.

 

In my opinion, we would be better off with public sector means of production in the manner of Hoover Dam and the Fed. Both are market friendly and generate revenue which can defray the cost of government and lower our tax burden.

Upgrading our infrastructure could accomplish similar objectives while improving the efficiency of our economy and requiring labor in the US.

 

Why do you seem to dislike "young" people, or have some kind of view about them of being lowly-intelligent, weak, incompetent things?

 

Young people can't imagine the future. Partially this is a question of experience. However, the major problem facing young Americans is that they have received inferior educations. And they don't realize it. Their foreign competitors are not under the same disability.

If young people realized what is in store for them they would be in the streets demanding redress for the greatest generational betrayal in human history. But they won't. They will go meekly down the chute like cattle.

If I could wake them from their reverie I would dearly love to. Some young people will escape, but they have had parents who advocated for, and mentored, them.

There is only so much economic opportunity. Much of the economic opportunity of the future has been borrowed to pay for past and present consumption. That means the dollars that would have gone into future investments to create jobs for young people in the future will instead go to pay for debt service payments.

 

K, so what do you suggest we do, exactly?

I'm not blind or naive about what the problem is. The problem for "young people" is dickwad employers like you who have a love for foreigners, mainly due to their desperation that you can exploit. THAT'S the problem.