It's called Keynesian economics. A 1930's work program to fix America's crumbling infrastructure would do wonders for the economy. Please educate yourself and pick up a shovel.
For instance, you took out a loan on 'future income', similarly the government can budget based on their expectation of 'future income' (taxes but really tied to 'GDP').
The previous poster accused me of not understanding how to live within my means when all I did was pointed out how voters behaved at the voting booth. My personal example was to dispute that point. Seems like some/. posters are resisting the idea of taking personal responsibility at the voting booth, which of course goes back to wanting more government services while someone else pays for it.
The U.S. Mint has the legal authority to produce enough $1T coins to deposit with the Treasury and pay off the entire national debt. This was one option considered during the 2013 government shutdown. Although perfectly legal under the U.S. Constitution, it would undermine the world-wide confidence in the full trust and credit of the American people.
Why don't you just pay off the loan as fast as possible? It sounds rather waseful to pay a huge interest when you have mony to put in your savings account.
As part of my loan agreement, I had to direct my paycheck not only into my checking account, but also savings and Roth IRA accounts. My combined accounts now greatly exceed what owe on the loan. I could have paid off the 9% loan, but it's not a burden for me to continue paying off on schedule. This isn't like have a 30% credit card debt.
Then why didn't you have a year's worth of expenses on a savings account?
Because I haven't recovered from being unemployed for two years (2009-2010), underemployed for six months (working 20 hours PER MONTH), and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. It's hard to build up a cash reserve when you make just enough money to pay the bills but not enough to get ahead. Most of my contract jobs varied in length and pay between brief bouts of unemployments. I'm fortunate that my current job is "permanent" with annual contract renewals for the next four years.
The European countries that tried to balance their budgets during the recession are now recovering nicely and are able to lower taxes. Those that did not are still in trouble.
The European countries that printed their own currency are doing fine. The countries that are tied together with the Euro are still struggling from their double dip recession. Greece is most likely to abandon the Euro. Who knows what will happen after that.
Issuing bonds isn't a problem. Saving Wall Street from its own mistake is a problem, especially for the banks that believe they're too big too fail. Banks that screw up should fail and suffer the consequences.
You cannot regularly exceed your budget and expect to remain operational. Governments are no exception.
The United State has historically been in debt since the 1790's. If you look at the graph, we spent far more money in World War II than we did to turn around the Great Recession. The graph also shows that the debt will be going up as the baby boomers retire and the tax base (workers) shrinks over the next 20 years, where mandatory spending (social security) will consume 2/3 of the federal budget. The Republicans are talking about balancing the budget in 10 years, but their balanced budget plan doesn't fix the problem in 20 years from now.
If you're talking about the federal debt limit, which most people mistakenly refer to as a credit limit, it limits how many bonds the Treasury can issue to refinance existing debt obligations. The debt limit doesn't prevent Congress from spending like drunken sailors. If the debt limit isn't periodically raised to pay the bills that Congress already rung up on the charge card, the government will default on the debt and the world-wide economy collapses from a worthless U.S. dollar. This almost happened when the government shutdown for 16 days in 2013.
Its called living within your means, and you have zero understanding of what that means.
When I was out of work for eight months last year, I got a new job but it wouldn't start for another month and the rent was due. I went to the credit union, filled out a loan application and showed them my employment contract. Three days later I got a loan for $2,500 @ 9% interest. I paid my rent, started my job. Almost a year later, I'm about half-way through paying off my loan, saving 21% of my monthly paycheck and getting a raise with my next contract renewal. So I think I know to live with my means.
Just because the government can alter its means to support its lifestyle does not mean that its a good idea.
If we treat a national budget the same way as a personal budget, the economy would collapse into another Great Depression. Europe tried to cut back, suffered back-to-back recessions, and are now buying bonds to inject liquidity into the system. The U.S. could have done a lot more to turn the economy around if wasn't for people like you who insisted on tightening the belt around our collective necks.
It's time Washington works within a budget like everyone else.
Yet we vote out every politician who offers to balance the budget by raising taxes, vote in every politician who promises to expand services without a word on balancing the budget, and borrow trillions of dollars to maintain the status quo. If you want to change Washington, look in the mirror.
My tea party brethren insists that the Obamaphone is a government-issued iPhone. Swear by the Lord (give me a witness!), it's an iPhone. Not a wussy 8GB iPhone, but honest-to-God 128GB iPhone. But whenever I ask to sign up to get my very own government-issued iPhone, everyone stops talking about how all those moochers have the Obamaphone.
A friend of mine rented an old Victorian house in downtown San Jose (Silicon Valley for the geographically challenged) that had 12V DC outlets. The wiring still worked. He plugged his CB radio by sticking the red and black wires directly into the outlet.
Not really. Much of the water goes to agriculture. Of that, much of it goes to almond trees that can't lie fallow during a drought like produce fields. Each almond nut requires one gallon of water. Get rid of the almond trees, there's enough water for people in California. Unfortunately, agriculture is a multi-billion-dollar industry and 2/3 of U.S. almonds comes from California. Now that nuts!
Republicans don't like the fact that Democratic Governor Brown put a tax increase on the ballot in 2012, a majority of voters voted yes (55.4%), and the state budget has a budget surplus this year and next year. That doesn't fit the doom-and-gloom narrative that California is on the verge of an economic collapse.
Are you sure about that? Politico had an article on how GOP Catholics (oxymoron?) felt uncomfortable with the current pope's policies on global warming and Israel. Someone posted a long comment about how California was a failed welfare state with cherry-picked links to conservative "news" articles from several years ago. As a moderate conservative in California, I found the post very offensive. Seems like some posters don't have anything to add to the discussion, just toss in California as a monkey wrench.
Except for the United States. We're too busy planning to hump an asteroid in lunar orbit to explore future mining opportunities. Never mind that mining is illegal under existing space treaty.
Most people leave the video game industry for good after they realize that they want a personal life that includes a significant other and having a family. Very few testers work their way up to become producers or programmers. I went into help desk support for ten years and I'm now doing computer security, making twice as much money for half the hours that I did as a video game tester.
A lot of cars today are not user servicable beyond routine maintanence. My father once spent $800 on replacement parts trying to fix his car, gave up and took it to a shop. The mechanic scanned the computer, checked the error code, and replaced a electronic module for $30 in 15 minutes. The problem was digitial, not mechanical.
The organisation sounds like its run by douche bags incapable of proper project management.
The company I worked for insisted on making each and every game be available for each and every video game consoles in existence. That looks good on paper, if properly executed. The developers took shortcuts to meet the aggressive schedules imposed on them. The pipeline blew up when Nintendo started rejecting the PS2 ports for the GameCube and demanded that the deveopers start over with an original game. On my last project, I had to work 28 days straight to keep management happy.
Slashdot Mirror
Take out credit cards and file for bankruptcy every ten years.
It's called Keynesian economics. A 1930's work program to fix America's crumbling infrastructure would do wonders for the economy. Please educate yourself and pick up a shovel.
For instance, you took out a loan on 'future income', similarly the government can budget based on their expectation of 'future income' (taxes but really tied to 'GDP').
The previous poster accused me of not understanding how to live within my means when all I did was pointed out how voters behaved at the voting booth. My personal example was to dispute that point. Seems like some /. posters are resisting the idea of taking personal responsibility at the voting booth, which of course goes back to wanting more government services while someone else pays for it.
The U.S. Mint has the legal authority to produce enough $1T coins to deposit with the Treasury and pay off the entire national debt. This was one option considered during the 2013 government shutdown. Although perfectly legal under the U.S. Constitution, it would undermine the world-wide confidence in the full trust and credit of the American people.
Why don't you just pay off the loan as fast as possible? It sounds rather waseful to pay a huge interest when you have mony to put in your savings account.
As part of my loan agreement, I had to direct my paycheck not only into my checking account, but also savings and Roth IRA accounts. My combined accounts now greatly exceed what owe on the loan. I could have paid off the 9% loan, but it's not a burden for me to continue paying off on schedule. This isn't like have a 30% credit card debt.
Then why didn't you have a year's worth of expenses on a savings account?
Because I haven't recovered from being unemployed for two years (2009-2010), underemployed for six months (working 20 hours PER MONTH), and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. It's hard to build up a cash reserve when you make just enough money to pay the bills but not enough to get ahead. Most of my contract jobs varied in length and pay between brief bouts of unemployments. I'm fortunate that my current job is "permanent" with annual contract renewals for the next four years.
The European countries that tried to balance their budgets during the recession are now recovering nicely and are able to lower taxes. Those that did not are still in trouble.
The European countries that printed their own currency are doing fine. The countries that are tied together with the Euro are still struggling from their double dip recession. Greece is most likely to abandon the Euro. Who knows what will happen after that.
Issuing bonds isn't a problem. Saving Wall Street from its own mistake is a problem, especially for the banks that believe they're too big too fail. Banks that screw up should fail and suffer the consequences.
You cannot regularly exceed your budget and expect to remain operational. Governments are no exception.
The United State has historically been in debt since the 1790's. If you look at the graph, we spent far more money in World War II than we did to turn around the Great Recession. The graph also shows that the debt will be going up as the baby boomers retire and the tax base (workers) shrinks over the next 20 years, where mandatory spending (social security) will consume 2/3 of the federal budget. The Republicans are talking about balancing the budget in 10 years, but their balanced budget plan doesn't fix the problem in 20 years from now.
If you're talking about the federal debt limit, which most people mistakenly refer to as a credit limit, it limits how many bonds the Treasury can issue to refinance existing debt obligations. The debt limit doesn't prevent Congress from spending like drunken sailors. If the debt limit isn't periodically raised to pay the bills that Congress already rung up on the charge card, the government will default on the debt and the world-wide economy collapses from a worthless U.S. dollar. This almost happened when the government shutdown for 16 days in 2013.
Its called living within your means, and you have zero understanding of what that means.
When I was out of work for eight months last year, I got a new job but it wouldn't start for another month and the rent was due. I went to the credit union, filled out a loan application and showed them my employment contract. Three days later I got a loan for $2,500 @ 9% interest. I paid my rent, started my job. Almost a year later, I'm about half-way through paying off my loan, saving 21% of my monthly paycheck and getting a raise with my next contract renewal. So I think I know to live with my means.
Just because the government can alter its means to support its lifestyle does not mean that its a good idea.
If we treat a national budget the same way as a personal budget, the economy would collapse into another Great Depression. Europe tried to cut back, suffered back-to-back recessions, and are now buying bonds to inject liquidity into the system. The U.S. could have done a lot more to turn the economy around if wasn't for people like you who insisted on tightening the belt around our collective necks.
It's time Washington works within a budget like everyone else.
Yet we vote out every politician who offers to balance the budget by raising taxes, vote in every politician who promises to expand services without a word on balancing the budget, and borrow trillions of dollars to maintain the status quo. If you want to change Washington, look in the mirror.
My tea party brethren insists that the Obamaphone is a government-issued iPhone. Swear by the Lord (give me a witness!), it's an iPhone. Not a wussy 8GB iPhone, but honest-to-God 128GB iPhone. But whenever I ask to sign up to get my very own government-issued iPhone, everyone stops talking about how all those moochers have the Obamaphone.
A friend of mine rented an old Victorian house in downtown San Jose (Silicon Valley for the geographically challenged) that had 12V DC outlets. The wiring still worked. He plugged his CB radio by sticking the red and black wires directly into the outlet.
My roommate likes butternut squash with peanut butter. I don't understand that.
Police state, yes. Racist, depends on who and where you are.
Not really. Much of the water goes to agriculture. Of that, much of it goes to almond trees that can't lie fallow during a drought like produce fields. Each almond nut requires one gallon of water. Get rid of the almond trees, there's enough water for people in California. Unfortunately, agriculture is a multi-billion-dollar industry and 2/3 of U.S. almonds comes from California. Now that nuts!
Republicans don't like the fact that Democratic Governor Brown put a tax increase on the ballot in 2012, a majority of voters voted yes (55.4%), and the state budget has a budget surplus this year and next year. That doesn't fit the doom-and-gloom narrative that California is on the verge of an economic collapse.
Whoops, wrong article.
Are you sure about that? Politico had an article on how GOP Catholics (oxymoron?) felt uncomfortable with the current pope's policies on global warming and Israel. Someone posted a long comment about how California was a failed welfare state with cherry-picked links to conservative "news" articles from several years ago. As a moderate conservative in California, I found the post very offensive. Seems like some posters don't have anything to add to the discussion, just toss in California as a monkey wrench.
Go back to watching your faux news, asshole.
If I was trolling, I would post as an AC... just... like... you.
P.S., This is Slashdot, not Politico.
It's Planetary Resources that wants the U.S. to break the treaty. Remember that name. No doubt it will become the Wal-Mart of outer space.
Been there, done that. Meanwhile, Mars gets all the love, including a new rover.
Except for the United States. We're too busy planning to hump an asteroid in lunar orbit to explore future mining opportunities. Never mind that mining is illegal under existing space treaty.
I had the Turtle Graphics cartridge for the VIC-20. Never picked up a version for the C64.
Most people leave the video game industry for good after they realize that they want a personal life that includes a significant other and having a family. Very few testers work their way up to become producers or programmers. I went into help desk support for ten years and I'm now doing computer security, making twice as much money for half the hours that I did as a video game tester.
A lot of cars today are not user servicable beyond routine maintanence. My father once spent $800 on replacement parts trying to fix his car, gave up and took it to a shop. The mechanic scanned the computer, checked the error code, and replaced a electronic module for $30 in 15 minutes. The problem was digitial, not mechanical.
The organisation sounds like its run by douche bags incapable of proper project management.
The company I worked for insisted on making each and every game be available for each and every video game consoles in existence. That looks good on paper, if properly executed. The developers took shortcuts to meet the aggressive schedules imposed on them. The pipeline blew up when Nintendo started rejecting the PS2 ports for the GameCube and demanded that the deveopers start over with an original game. On my last project, I had to work 28 days straight to keep management happy.