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When someone is going bankrupt and they have tangible assets, what does the Court require them to do? Sell their assets and use the proceeds to pay off their debts. Now foreigners may not like the American gov't, or even Americans, but they do like America (the land, I mean) and state, local and federal govt's own (let's throw out a %) 70% of all the land. So what to do? Sell half of it to foreigners. Again, let's take an educated guess on the value of this land. 50 trillion dollars, or euros, or in whatever currency you want to value it? 60 trillion? Voila! National debt problem solved. Seems simplistic, but the bottom line is always "you have something I want to buy badly so how much do you want to part with it". So why doesn't the govt just put the land up for sale, pay off their deficits and then we do it right this time around?
Location: Sitting on a bar stool. Guinness in hand.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeyT
When someone is going bankrupt and they have tangible assets, what does the Court require them to do? Sell their assets and use the proceeds to pay off their debts. Now foreigners may not like the American gov't, or even Americans, but they do like America (the land, I mean) and state, local and federal govt's own (let's throw out a %) 70% of all the land. So what to do? Sell half of it to foreigners. Again, let's take an educated guess on the value of this land. 50 trillion dollars, or euros, or in whatever currency you want to value it? 60 trillion? Voila! National debt problem solved. Seems simplistic, but the bottom line is always "you have something I want to buy badly so how much do you want to part with it". So why doesn't the govt just put the land up for sale, pay off their deficits and then we do it right this time around?
The opposition your going to get from the American people is going to be overwhelming. Anyone in the government that would put this idea forth would be committing political suicide. Look. Local/State governments might be able to sell off toll roads and what not. But actually the act of overtly trying to sell our land to foreigners/foreign governments would be construed as treason by the American people.
Also. What land would we be willing to sell? Is in more in the coastal regions where vacationers often go? Is it old industrial areas that have fallen on hard times? Is it in the bread basket areas of the country where we produce a lot of our food? Where are we looking at to sell off? BTW I wouldn't suggest any farmable land. It going to be very valuable in the future. I know right now North Dakota, South Dakota, and other areas in "fly over country" don't seem like all that much. But the Chinese and Indians are going to need food from the U.S. in the future. And we are going to need that land to turn a profit on them.
Lastly who says that most foreigners want to buy American real estate at this point. Look the market is going down in most places. So why should they wish to lose money on the gamble. Also why would they want to pay property taxes that are artificially high (because of ridiculously high assessment values.) You know state and local government are going to do their best to keep those assessment numbers high as long as they can and won't offer any type of tax reduction in a devaluing property if possible. Basically it just not a good deal for them right now.
Well, advancing my bankruptcy analogy a little further, hubby says to his wife, "Honey, we're bankrupt. We have to sell the BMW's. She says, "I'll be %$#@ if you're going to sell my BMW!" He says, "Honey, what choice do we have?" So I ask, what choice do we have? I'm beginning to think this whole business with the USA on the verge of economic meltdown is a lot of horsesh*t. If we WERE in a jam, we'd have no choice but to sell our assets to meet our obligations. Apparently things are not as bad as the MSM make them out to be or else our governments would be against the wall. Seems they are not.
They are not against the wall because we are still not maxed out on our government credit cards. We continue to take out HELOCs and cash advances from foreigh governments... who lend it to us so we can turn around and by their oil, widgets and other items.
The problem is that sooner or later (like homeowners today) we can not be using the expectation of future income to pay for goods today. You can live off a credit card for a while but sooner or later the bill is due. If the US was a person, it would have been cut off long ago and would technically be in Bankruptcy whether it wanted to admit it or not. Luckily governments do not have to play by the same rules they expect us to.
If the government would take one simple step and legalize and regulate marijuana, the taxes alone would take care of the debt in a few short years. And before you think that I am a young, dope smoking, hippie, I am a almost sixty, grandmother to nine, don't smoke it, have tried it, may smoke it again. It does not do anymore for me than a glass of wine, son smokes it, does not effect him. In fact, in general, he is a much nicer person when he is a bit high. Have you ever heard of someone murdering someone when he had indulged in a little pot? No. The government should grown, harvest it, sell to adults over the age of 21, sell in licensed state or liquor stores and tax the hell out of it. The money saved on decriminalizing it and the profit from controlling and taxing it would put us all in the black. DUI laws would be for marijuana use as well as alcohol, but the money spent prosecuting, jailing, etc. would be money better spent elsewhere, there is nothing wrong with pot anymore than there is anything wrong with having a glass of beer or a glass of wine.
The solution is rather simple. The Fed needs to raise interests dramatically. There will be enormous pain and unemployment but we will bring back King Dollar, get rid of all the deadbeats on Wall street, destroy energy demand and screw the middle east.
There is no end to the current crisis the way it is being handled today. Defecit spending cannot last forever, whether personal or government. Time for some tough medicine. We are doing the very things that we scolded the Japanese for doing in the 90's. Hiding the problems under the rug. Japan has been in recession or no growth for 18 years now and we will be the same.
Only silver lining - no more immigration problem because no one will want to come here.
There is way to much foreign ownership around here already. I would like to throw much of the foreign money out. Getting rid of the Fed is ideal, but raising interest rates would be a great first step. If the United States sells its assets, what will be left for us, the citizens?
"There will be enormous pain and unemployment but we will bring back King Dollar, get rid of all the deadbeats on Wall street, destroy energy demand and screw the middle east."
I like the idea of clearing out the deadbeats. The rot starts at the top, and we are suffering under the weight of useless investors and traders.
If the government would take one simple step and legalize and regulate marijuana, the taxes alone would take care of the debt in a few short years. DUI laws would be for marijuana use as well as alcohol, but the money spent prosecuting, jailing, etc. would be money better spent elsewhere, there is nothing wrong with pot anymore than there is anything wrong with having a glass of beer or a glass of wine.
The funny part is, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) just introduced a bill to de-criminalize the possesion of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Frank also happens to be the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and one of the biggest pushers of legislation to "fix" the mortgage and credit mess.
So as crazy as some may view this idea.... apparently at least one prominent person in Congress seems to be on the same track.
I understand the motivation of the OP to solve the governments' fiscal problems, but do we want a national treasure such as the Grand Canyon under the ownership of another country? Can we rely on them to protect it or will they be like absentee landlords letting it fall into neglect. After all, it is not in their country...out of sight, out of mind.
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