How Do We Turn the Titanic (Economy) Around? (incorporated, fees, insurance)

[SuSuSushi]

Let it sink, then build a new and safer one. Kind of like the real Titanic.

[texdav]

Well its hard to build a ship if you have no money or credit worth anything.Ask som,e of the third world countires that have gone thru this kind of sinking.

[SuSuSushi]

Originally Posted by texdav

Well its hard to build a ship if you have no money or credit worth anything.Ask som,e of the third world countires that have gone thru this kind of sinking.

Well, I guess a lot of you shouldn't have spent so much money you didn't actually have, then.

[w1ngzer0]

Originally Posted by Lincolnian

Doom and gloom dominate the nightly news now. President-elect Obama talks about the challenges of a troubled economy.

What will it really take to turn the Titanic (Economy) around?

My personal belief is that a drive to energy independence from foreign oil and related transportation and infrastructure products could be the catalyst to usher in prosperity for the balance of the century.

I partially agree with this. What will set us apart from other countries? Automation and robotics.

Why are we on the level of other countries in technology? This is the USA, the people that set the standard in the world for technology. The small country that competed with giant, Russia in a space race. I couldn't agree more with the Chinese businessmen, America needs to make a better product, a better world (not war), and move this earth onto new technologies.

Why do countries like China and Japan have meglev trains that go 300 mph, floating in the air. While we have a crumbling transportation system. I am still a young adult approaching middle age and this problem of our country falling apart was out of my control, because i was just a kid.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Lincolnian

Doom and gloom dominate the nightly news now. President-elect Obama talks about the challenges of a troubled economy.

What will it really take to turn the Titanic (Economy) around?

My personal belief is that a drive to energy independence from foreign oil and related transportation and infrastructure products could be the catalyst to usher in prosperity for the balance of the century. See New England Opinion Blog: 3 Pillars of Prosperity for America for more details.

First quit LYING to the American people and level with us about how bad the problem really is. You notice Bush did everything he could to kick the can of bad news past the election but the timing just didn't work out.
Secondly, the government needs to do some unpopular things beginning with getting us off foreign oil which is causing a massive transfer of wealth outside the country and empowering troublemakers like Iran and Russia. The government should impose a "floor tax" on oil that would bring the price of a barrel no lower than $120 (about $4 a gallon of regular) and ban any non commercial vehicle that gets less than 23 mpg from the market. The tax should be used to subsidize the sale of small cars.
Secondly the government should ban Freddie and Fannie or the FHA from any lending that does not meet certain credit standards and require a down payment of no less than 10% in cash for any mortgages.
Also, we need much more regulation of the economy- we need to ban or at least closely examine any mergers of competitors. I still cannot believe that the Republicans allowed the monster AT&T to rise from the dead and take over phone service again after it took decades to break up that monopoly. Same with the big banks and oil companies.

[Lincolnian]

Originally Posted by KevK

First quit LYING to the American people and level with us about how bad the problem really is. You notice Bush did everything he could to kick the can of bad news past the election but the timing just didn't work out.
Secondly, the government needs to do some unpopular things beginning with getting us off foreign oil which is causing a massive transfer of wealth outside the country and empowering troublemakers like Iran and Russia. The government should impose a "floor tax" on oil that would bring the price of a barrel no lower than $120 (about $4 a gallon of regular) and ban any non commercial vehicle that gets less than 23 mpg from the market. The tax should be used to subsidize the sale of small cars.
Secondly the government should ban Freddie and Fannie or the FHA from any lending that does not meet certain credit standards and require a down payment of no less than 10% in cash for any mortgages.
Also, we need much more regulation of the economy- we need to ban or at least closely examine any mergers of competitors. I still cannot believe that the Republicans allowed the monster AT&T to rise from the dead and take over phone service again after it took decades to break up that monopoly. Same with the big banks and oil companies.

I largely agree with you, especially concerning moving away from our foreign oil dependence.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by w1ngzer0

I partially agree with this. What will set us apart from other countries? Automation and robotics.

Why are we on the level of other countries in technology? This is the USA, the people that set the standard in the world for technology. The small country that competed with giant, Russia in a space race. I couldn't agree more with the Chinese businessmen, America needs to make a better product, a better world (not war), and move this earth onto new technologies.

Why do countries like China and Japan have meglev trains that go 300 mph, floating in the air. While we have a crumbling transportation system. I am still a young adult approaching middle age and this problem of our country falling apart was out of my control, because i was just a kid.

Because of the fact that we spend alot more of our GNP on the military than those countries do and because we do not have a command economy like China does. A command economy suppresses freedom and democracy in the name of efficiency. In a country of a few billion people, you probably need a command economy but it would never go over in a democratic country like the USA. The President cannot, in the USA, come on TV and say "we have decided to build a magnalev train that will run from Boston to Washington DC at 300 MPH and construction will begin in 60 days" and then go and tell landowners in the right-of-way "here is what we are giving you for your land and if you don't like it, tough, you have 30 days to vacate" and then on day 31, the bulldozers move in and clear the right-of-way and the concrete footings are being poured. That is the way things are done in China.

[StoneOne]

Originally Posted by bale002

Retrain resource-destroying mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, securities brokers, bankers, credit card pushers, pencil pushers in general, retail workers, and car factory workers to work in the real green field, let them grow green thumbs.

If these people are not willing to get their hands dirty, then the situation will not turn around.

I think a more difficult problem is that, as things stand, the energy in/energy out equation for many of these alternatives is not favorable, and even less so now that the price of oil has declined.

In any case, as mentioned, if the government continues to subsidize deadbeats, the situation cannot turn around.

[w1ngzer0]

Originally Posted by KevK

[/b]

Because of the fact that we spend alot more of our GNP on the military than those countries do and because we do not have a command economy like China does. A command economy suppresses freedom and democracy in the name of efficiency. In a country of a few billion people, you probably need a command economy but it would never go over in a democratic country like the USA. The President cannot, in the USA, come on TV and say "we have decided to build a magnalev train that will run from Boston to Washington DC at 300 MPH and construction will begin in 60 days" and then go and tell landowners in the right-of-way "here is what we are giving you for your land and if you don't like it, tough, you have 30 days to vacate" and then on day 31, the bulldozers move in and clear the right-of-way and the concrete footings are being poured. That is the way things are done in China.

I understand the differences between the two countries and how things work, but why so late, maybe too late. While most of the west and even the east was still open in the early 1900's, why couldn't they invest the money back then? The maglev was invented over 100 years ago and we are now looking at it? while 2nd world countries are investing time and money into it 100 years later, when we could have used it 100 years ago and be even more advanced then today?

The maglev was invented in 1906.
Here is the patient paperwork to prove it.
http://www.pat2pdf.org/patents/pat859018.pdf

[jimmyP]

KevK - your point about oil is right on target. We should raise the tax on gasoline to destroy demand. Use the revenue to invest in new technologies. Lee Iacocca raised this issue many years ago and was laughed at. He was right. But we need responsible leadership in Washington and not the band of thieves that currently reside there.