Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All government employees are leeches. They produce nothing. They raise the standard of living of nobody (except themselves), while imposing a huge cost on the working productive class. If we are to survive as a nation, we have to reduce the massive cost of a government overgrown to the point of bankrupting ANY nation, and we must do it by laying off all the government workers who do nothing but run countless give-away programs and staff the countless "regulatory" programs that only regulate those who would do no harm anyway.
The private sector is the only thing that creates value. For example, a craftsman in the private sector creates a fine piece of furniture from raw materials (wood and other supplies). The person purchasing the piece of fine furniture has received a better quality of life, and since he was not forced to buy, gave an amount of money for the product that he considers fair and can afford. Everyone--from the workers involved in transporting the raw materials, the craftsman, the buyer, and all the related industries--benefits.
Now add government to the equation. Huge costs of taxes are imposed at every level of transfer and every point where value can be identified. These taxes pay for all the graft, corruption, payoffs, Special Interests, World Policing, cost of the massive government organizations, politicians, local government workers, etc. What value do they add?
Regulation. When you have lived in the real world, you know that Big Business--which actually commits the atrocities that trigger calls for regulation--are totally FREE of regulation. They OWN the politicians. They get a free pass. The only people who get hit with the extra costs and burdens of regulation are the LITTLE guys who would not do things wrong in the first place. For instance, I was prevented from putting a basement in my Dad's house by NH's insane shoreland regulations, which would have required over $50,000 in hired experts, and over a year in delay, to go through the process to prove to the state and local government that my new basement would not affect the marsh grass 100' away. So I simply did not spend the money to put in the basement, and did not stimulate the local economy by hiring many local contractors. What was gained? Nothing. What was lost? About $30,000 I wanted to invest in the local economy.
As to Federal government, all the World war-mongering and feeding of Special Interests is a total loss to the working class taxpayer. The only thing workers get back on the federal level is Social Security and Medicare, and those are taxed separately at a total of 15.3% (half hidden by having the employer pay it directly). So in effect, we could keep Social Security and Medicare totally secure and separate, and for now fully preserve the one thing we get back from the Federal Government--the forced retirement program that provides a NEGATIVE return for anyone born after 1960. Phase this program out, since Ponzi Scams will always collapse when exponential growth ends, as it must (and already did, in the case of SS).
The rest of the Federal Government give NOTHING back to those who pay the huge bills, except for protecting the nation from foreign threat. We might as well forget this aim, since our leaders SOLD our nation to foreign interests long ago. China and other nations already own most of our assets. As to foreign invasion, since Big Business had to destroy the labor market (and therefore the Middle Class), we already established totally open borders, and zero enforcement of illegal immigration. So any nation wanting to physically invade can simply walk across Mexico or Canada, or boat or fly in. Since foreigners already own our assets, why waste money doing that?
Those who still feel like pretending we have a nation to protect could be appeased with plenty of nuclear weapons and other arms that could be used to repel a military attack. So by reducing the Federal Government to ONLY defense of the nation, we would need about 1/1,000,000,000 of the current federal budget.
In other words, we could get rid of 99% of the current government, which is now imposing what's left of our working class with such obscene costs that they have no money left to create an economy with. And we wouldn't even notice the loss, other than massive prosperity and freedom.
Of course, the people in charge of dismantling our bloated government must be Libertarians, because if the traditional Government employee is left in charge, they will cut ONLY the 1% the taxpayer gets in return (SS and Medicare, as the current scum threaten whenever their obscene tax burden is questioned), and ignore the other 99% that is pure graft, corruption and pork.
Nice rant, but you describe and imaginary world. No country in the modern world has a government 1% of the size of ours per GDP, except maybe Somalia or South Sudan. Embarrassing.
Yes it will hurt to dismantle the Federal Occupational Force...(oooh double meanings ) but change always hurts. But all of the current parasites would eventually become actual productive people at some point. In the long-run...win-win. Smaller government...bigger more productive economy. And instead of having all of these Americans working for the violent and unjust Governmnt Extortion Ring they would be exchanging services and goods through voluntary exchanges in the free market instead of deriving their "pay" at the end of the barrel of a government gun.
Don't get me wrong - spending cuts are necessary for long term growth. Just FYI, there is pretty much no way that major spending cuts by government at all levels won't have a profoundly negative impact on our growth in the short term.
Some of that government spending we like to condemn represents salaries for a lot of people who work with federal and local government in various ways - contractors, military, people working on infrastructure projects, police, firefighters, etc. When their income is now cut off, what are they going to do - apply for all the free jobs waiting for them in the private sector? They are now going to join the segment of consumers who are out of the spending cycle.
And it's not like the reduction of government spending is going to translate overnight into a wave of "confidence" for private businesses. Consumers and business investment are stuck in a vicious cycle now; consumers don't spend because businesses aren't hiring, and businesses aren't hiring because consumers aren't spending. So if all else is equal in the GDP equation (GDP = C + I + G + [X-N]), then if that G variable comes down drastically...GDP is going to tangibly suffer in the near term.
So...maybe it's necessary, but get ready for things to get better before they get worse. After the latest anemic Q1-Q2 GDP growth numbers, there's been renewed talk by economists of a much greater risk than previously thought of a double dip recession by the end of the year. I think the level of belt tightening by local and soon federal governments will definitely get us there.
I hope the Tea Party folks told you this in full disclosure when they proposed their platform of cutting government spending. With the way some people talk, it really seems to me like they don't know this.
Unless you have a major in Economics, then I am including not to believe you here. Just sayin'
Unless you have a major in Economics, then I am including not to believe you here. Just sayin'
Actually, I do have a bachelor's degree in economics. I also have a master's degree and seven years of professional experience in corporate finance. And I completed both degrees with significantly above-average GPAs. And what I'm laying out here is just the beginner's section that is non-controversial to the large majority of people who are well-versed in economics. Just sayin'.
Clearly you need to take a sip of reality. The fact that the government "prints" money, and then floods the street with it, doesnt stimuluate, it simply devalues the currency, nor is that reality of what happened. They BORROWED money. If they didnt borrow the money and only printed it, the national debt would have had a credit, not a debt.
Elementary accounting classes would do you nicely.
*sigh*
Thanks for making a counter-point by saying essentially the same thing that I wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ambient
The government can print money and flood the streets with it. We could have dollar bills floating in the breeze like autumn leaves, and it's still not going to mean diddly (except for inflation) if the consumer is maxed out and businesses aren't willing to invest for domestic expansion until they see that the consumer has sufficiently de-leveraged to get back in the came.
Elementary reading classes would do you nicely.
Oh, and really? We borrowed money? Thanks for letting me in on that little tip.
the only people who won't agree with this post are the government workers.
even the government workers must know that we are on an unsustainable course -that this level of spending cannot continue-that the bailouts are getting closer and closer together, and the debt level is rising vertically now with the aging population, massive illegal immigration, falling revenue, wall street corruption, overregulation, waste of stimulus money, and job offshoring.
honestly, is there anyone out there who really thinks that we can keep fighting these endless wars and pay for massively increasing social services and rising unemployment with falling revenue???
it is just a matter of time now.
Bull crap. All government employees aren't leeches. FDA workers aren't leeches. USDA workers aren't leeches.
My Grandmother worked for 30 years as a meat inspector. She took pride in her work and worked hard to make sure she inspected the production and distribution of meat throughout the nation. Most folks want good food, 90% of the people I know have no idea what goes into food production in this country. Without inspection by someone, we'd have food disease outbreaks everywhere. Mad cow would now be here in the United States killing Americans. E-Coli outbreaks would be happening weekly.
There are some good government programs. Now they could be bloated, over grown, and in need of cuts, but they aren't bad ideas.
Remember, Military men and women are government employees also, are they leeches?
Don't get me wrong - spending cuts are necessary for long term growth. Just FYI, there is pretty much no way that major spending cuts by government at all levels won't have a profoundly negative impact on our growth in the short term.
Some of that government spending we like to condemn represents salaries for a lot of people who work with federal and local government in various ways - contractors, military, people working on infrastructure projects, police, firefighters, etc. When their income is now cut off, what are they going to do - apply for all the free jobs waiting for them in the private sector? They are now going to join the segment of consumers who are out of the spending cycle.
And it's not like the reduction of government spending is going to translate overnight into a wave of "confidence" for private businesses. Consumers and business investment are stuck in a vicious cycle now; consumers don't spend because businesses aren't hiring, and businesses aren't hiring because consumers aren't spending. So if all else is equal in the GDP equation (GDP = C + I + G + [X-N]), then if that G variable comes down drastically...GDP is going to tangibly suffer in the near term.
So...maybe it's necessary, but get ready for things to get better before they get worse. After the latest anemic Q1-Q2 GDP growth numbers, there's been renewed talk by economists of a much greater risk than previously thought of a double dip recession by the end of the year. I think the level of belt tightening by local and soon federal governments will definitely get us there.
I hope the Tea Party folks told you this in full disclosure when they proposed their platform of cutting government spending. With the way some people talk, it really seems to me like they don't know this.
This is hilarious. You take Economics 101 and you're an expert throwing out this worthless equation. Do you know where "G" comes from? It comes from siphoning "C+I" private consumption through taxes.
Also, GDP does not measure how strong an economy is. Remember when GDP went up because of the housing boom....oh yeh we knew what happened there.
The statement was made that ALL, not some, not the ones no one wants, but all government employees were leeches.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) but change always hurts. But all of the current parasites would eventually become actual productive people at some point. In the long-run...win-win. Smaller government...bigger more productive economy. And instead of having all of these Americans working for the violent and unjust Governmnt Extortion Ring they would be exchanging services and goods through voluntary exchanges in the free market instead of deriving their "pay" at the end of the barrel of a government gun.
