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LOL- Do you even realize which politician/political party started that program? I suggest you do a quick search on 'Reagan and Lifeline'. Educate yourself.
... Incidentally, the two countries with the biggest Point 2 surpluses are China (not surprising) but the biggest surplus goes too......Germany. Both have economically mindful governments.
Germany’s success ought to be a resounding lesson and case-study for all first-world nations. What did Germany do correctly, that others could emulate? After all, Germany didn’t exactly start from a position of affluence or good political stability 72 years ago. Neither is it replete with natural-resources such as oil or metals.
My guess, and it’s more of a guess than an expostulation of political thesis, is that Germany has found a viable compromise between free-market capitalism and the sort of regulatory/centralized practices that are all too easy to decry, and which indeed, are all too likely to fail. Yet they haven’t failed in Germany’s case. One of our semi-frequent posters here, a Silicon Valley wunderkind who now sings praises of the free-market, likes to point out the role of “bloat” in the exorbitant cost of American public-works projects (bridges, tunnels, airports, etc.). He points out that these costs are higher in the US, than in Europe or Japan. And he’s right. But why is he right? It can’t just be a matter of one “-ism” vs. another. It must be something deeper. Can it be exported? Or is it somehow exclusively German?
This is crazy - there are some issues but all in all the economy is booming. The economy is far from being "on it's knees". I mean, who can take you seriously with that kind of hyperbole? People dismiss you as some end-of-the-world kook on the very first line.
The defense budget has remained steady at about 15 or 16% of total spending. It's money well spent for the most part. The very premise of your thread is simply faulty...at least let's get to the real issue and that's the cost of healthcare which is more like 27% or 28% of spending. Entitlements is indeed an issue, but is far from being unmanageable yet.
Let me guess....you post frequently to the prepper forum....
I would be interested in how you justify your statement that the defense budget is "money well spent." However, the annual interest on the national debt would easily fund over half of our military budget, and I don't know of anyone who thinks that is "money well spent." The source of the majority of that debt is our military adventurism, but it really doesn't matter where it came from.
The problem is the ongoing deficit. That money is borrowed, and is not available for domestic investment, so the economy fails to grow fast enough to meet the needs of its citizens.
I would be interested in how you justify your statement that the defense budget is "money well spent." However, the annual interest on the national debt would easily fund over half of our military budget, and I don't know of anyone who thinks that is "money well spent." The source of the majority of that debt is our military adventurism, but it really doesn't matter where it came from.
The problem is the ongoing deficit. That money is borrowed, and is not available for domestic investment, so the economy fails to grow fast enough to meet the needs of its citizens.
It's all politics and a poor understanding of modern fiat money.
Deficits are moneys placed into the private sector. Whether it be military or infrastructure. One need not obviate the other, except for those still on the gold std paradigm. If the political will is there we can do both. And should do both IMO.
I have thought about this. But why did the economy decline as soon as we stopped the war in iraq around 2008?
It doesn't much matter where we are spending the money. The US defense budget peaked in 2010, but by then the damage was already becoming obvious. There were not enough jobs for everyone, and will not be again. Currently about 95 million people are out of the labor market entirely, living on government handouts and under the table hustling.
Think of it as the difference between weather and climate. A recession is just a rainy day that doesn't say much about the economy. The climate shift is when fewer people can find productive work, so output suffers.
That is simplistic, because automation has vastly increased productivity, but automation has also cut millions of people out of the job market. It's not a foregone conclusion that the rise in dependency is necessary. We're not in a great position to tell, since we have had destructive economic policies for decades. We spend 900 billion a year on assistance programs, 600 billion a year on the military, and 300 billion a year on interest, none of which does the economy any good. Fixing the mess would be painful in the extreme.
It's all politics and a poor understanding of modern fiat money.
Deficits are moneys placed into the private sector. Whether it be military or infrastructure. One need not obviate the other, except for those still on the gold std paradigm. If the political will is there we can do both. And should do both IMO.
Deficits are moneys removed from the private sector and made unavailable for private investment.
We spend 900 billion a year on assistance programs, 600 billion a year on the military, and 300 billion a year on interest, none of which does the economy any good. Fixing the mess would be painful in the extreme.
Any of that being taxes is redistributed back into the economy. Any from deficit spending is new money and that goes into the economy.
The US economy is actually doing pretty well vs most other countries right now.
But yes, we do spend an obscene amount of money on defense and military spending. Frankly, that's the thing that absolutely pisses me off the most about our Congress... They will fight tooth and nail and even threaten to shut down the government over passing something that costs $10 Billion.
$10 Billion is absolutely NOTHING in regard to what we spend on defense and war.
Keep in mind that this budget does NOT include monies directed to our ongoing wars... That is kept off books.
Defense contractors are huge campaign donors. Politicians aren't going to give up that money.
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