Here's a very nice representation of exactly why the US economy is in the condition it's in.
America used to be the country that manufactured and goods the whole world wanted. We've gone full circle from providing jobs in profit-making private industry to providing jobs in profit-eating, tax supported government bureaucracy.
And that doesn't even begin to factor in entitlements or wasteful government spending. That's why we owe the Chinese $800 billion.
We simply can't continue this way.
4 comments:
"We simply can't continue this way." I agree. Unfortunately all I hear from Democrat partisians is that the economy is getting better, it will get better when the stimulus money kicks in, or it will be better by election time.
This kind of tripe is ridiculuous and should be rejected by all serious people. The fact that these people say this is distressing because these are the people in power. If they don't get it, I don't see much help for the short term, as there is no one with sufficient poliitcal power at present to provide an alternative.
Since there is no amount of spin they can use to overcome a bad economy, I would expect their power to be short lived unless they plan to use the military, the national guard, and the police to ensure they remain in power. This may be the plan. There model seems to be third world dicatorships. This often works in the third world. Will it work here? Time will tell.
Since we cannot continue this way, what can we do? I've thought about this a great deal. The best place to start would be by cutting government regulations and government programs. By cut them I mean cut them to the bone!! Will there be abuses by some when this happens? For example, what happens when a large oil company no longer has an army of EPA officials and OSHA officials litterly in the jock straps of the executives of these companies monitoring every move they make?
Will some things people have taken for granted for many years go unfunded and be missed? I think so. As for the oil company example, there will probably be some abuses here as well, however, the benefits should out weigh the costs. At least, cutting government regulation and government spending has a chance to get the economy moving in a positive direction again.
With our current policies we have no chance to fix our economy. Even if we could, any economic recovery would be meaningless because all of the economic growth would need to be used to pay the national debt.
As I've mentioned here before, we could open all of our oil and gas reserves for drilling, build more refineries, and utilize coal to oil technologies. This would be a huge benefit to our economy and all of the jobs created in this industry would be highly paid union jobs. From an economic point of view, there is nothing not to like about such a policy.
With the right economic policies I would anticipate we could run as much as a trillion dollar annual surplus. If so, we could pay off China in about 10 years. Unfortunately it will probably take some time to right the economic situation.
In the mean time, spending needs to be cut. Perhaps a deal can be negotiated with China for some relief on the payments on the national debt owed to them. This will probably mean we will be unable to provide Tawain with any assistance and not seeking to counter Chinese moves in the Pacific. This is only prudent any way because the US military is currently incapable of defeating China in a military confrontation and we cannot afford the upgrades we would need to be able to match up effectively.
A good place to start on spending cuts is with the military. Bring all troops in Iraq and Afghanistan home immediately as soon or transport vehicles can get them out. Redeploy these forces to the borders. The cost savings would likely be tremendous and it would give us far greater utility for our national security interests than any thing we are currently doing.
i see one glaring error in the chart.
at the top of the chart, in the word clusterstock, the "sto" should be replaced with "fu".
i believe that would more accurately describe hussein's economic philosophy.
Heh! Can't disagree with you there, louie!
"Husein's economic policy.."" It can actually be summed up by the following. Whatever would work to fix the economy, do the exact opposite. The perscription to fix the economy is to decrease government regulation, decrease government spending, and decrease taxes. Mr. Obama is doing the exact opposite. I suspect he and his team are a.)complete idiots, b.)evil men and women bent on destroying America and its economy, or c.)blinded by their ideology. I suspect it is c.
Once government regulation is cut, spending is cut, and taxes are cut something needs to be done about the national debt. The bottom line is the creditors will need to renegotiate the terms if they expect to be paid.
A nuclear weapon is man's most dangerous weapon. It is less expensive to build and maintain than is an air craft carrier or nuclear submarine and it is based on 1930s technology. We have them in abundance right now. The creditors should be reminded of this fact. While we are not in any position to be able to defeat the Russians or the Chinese, in a military confrontation, hopefully we can adequately defend ourselves. These nukes can be our bargaining chips to get the creditors to renogiatate terms.
This will require us to upgrade our nuclear arsenal to ensure it remains viable. Unfortunately this government cannot even get this simple fact right as we have not upgraded the nuclear arsenal in quite a while!!
With the correct economic policies the debt can be paid off in 15 to 20 years but the creditors will have to allow us some breathing space. As I recall, Dubai recently renegotiated their debt and will not be making payments for six months. We should do something similar, as our financial condition is even worse than Dubai's is!!
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