Active Users:740 Time:14/11/2024 04:55:29 PM
They have us where they want us but don't dare pull the trigger. Joel Send a noteboard - 30/07/2011 05:46:12 PM
The Chinese economy is still doing great. Should we all become Communists?

Please realize that this is not an actual endorsement of Communisn. I just wanted you to know that economic policies aren't always black and white.

The Chinese economy's "growth" is a fiction backed by even more inflationary spending than that of the US and is on the virge of a far more disastrous real estate bubble than that experienced by anyone else.

I'm actually intensely curious (in a cerebral way, not in wanting to see it happen!) what is going to happen. I mean, soooo much of their economy is based on cheap-ass labor and being able to sell cheap-ass items to places like the US. What happens when we're not buying the same quantities? And when our debt effs them up? And when it is no longer quite so profitable to invest there?

While I can't claim complete objectivity, I agree with your assessment a lot more than Legolas'. That said, the crisis with our debt isn't the debt itself, it's our refusal to act on it threatening a default. Again, it's important to remember that while our debt equals our GDP, 67% of that debt is to our own SS trust fund. We financed more spending and tax cuts by borrowing from the Boomers while they were working and vastly outnumbered retirees, with people telling us since the Reagan administration it couldn't continue because one day they'd retire. That day has come. Also once again, I suspect that's why a lot of the cuts are targeted at SS; the more we reduce its financial commitments, the longer we can avoid paying the IOUs filling it so it can meet those commitments (OTOH, SS isn't charging interest). We could cut EXISTING (not projected) federal debt nearly $10 trillion if we just got rid of SS, and thus the money we owe it; sometimes it feels like that's the plan.

The $4.5 trillion we owe China et al. is significant, certainly, but it's not crippling, by any means. What's crippling is that we continue to insist on spending more money and handing out more tax cuts. Medicare will cripple us in a few decades if we don't halt rapidly rising healthcare costs, but private healthcare costs rising three times faster will force action long before that point; it's bankrupting the whole country, but will bankrupt Medicare last (mainly for all the reasons we need national public healthcare, like every other country with electricity and running water). The only debt "crisis" America has is the same one it's had for a generation: We traded "tax and spend" for "cut taxes and spend, " and you can't do both. Tax cuts have the same effect as federal spending increases, but tax cuts are the one "entitlement" that's sacrosanct.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.

Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!

LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Reply to message
2nd Quarter GDP at 1.3% - 1st Quarter downgraded to 0.4% - - 29/07/2011 02:31:07 PM 725 Views
...do all your posts have to be about evicting Obama out of the White House? *NM* - 29/07/2011 02:49:36 PM 197 Views
Not all, see the thread about the God Particle below..... - 29/07/2011 02:57:09 PM 499 Views
wasn't that good, sorry *NM* - 29/07/2011 09:28:42 PM 268 Views
you know coming off as cheering that the economy it crap doesn't put you in a good light - 29/07/2011 02:50:24 PM 489 Views
What exactly in my post is "cheering"..... - 29/07/2011 02:56:00 PM 503 Views
well I guess the dancing banna is just your sig - 29/07/2011 02:58:45 PM 453 Views
Yeah, the dancing banana can give that impression, understood - 29/07/2011 03:03:45 PM 538 Views
Why does the Dancing Banana have a cape? *NM* - 29/07/2011 09:33:29 PM 369 Views
On a side note this could be a Quickpoll.. so post a few answers *NM* - 29/07/2011 09:40:54 PM 306 Views
my contibution, to keep the sun off it's back peel *NM* - 29/07/2011 09:50:24 PM 317 Views
I guess it is a super dancing banana! - 30/07/2011 03:22:02 AM 422 Views
Fun Fun *NM* - 30/07/2011 08:00:52 PM 317 Views
when you find me and snoop agreeing on something you might want to look at it *NM* - 29/07/2011 02:59:49 PM 202 Views
Saved me the trouble of responding, to boot. - 29/07/2011 03:36:49 PM 577 Views
well any plan designed to break the control of the two parties - 29/07/2011 03:40:15 PM 512 Views
Neither of the two major partys is integral to America nor vital to its survival. - 29/07/2011 03:59:38 PM 696 Views
I agree but the control the rules and are not going to change the rules if it hurts that control - 29/07/2011 04:45:09 PM 633 Views
Also true, but that's just more reason to rescind their control. - 30/07/2011 03:52:07 PM 582 Views
the tea party as not as far right as you like to belive - 30/07/2011 04:38:40 PM 504 Views
Well, one of us is obviously wrong about that. - 30/07/2011 05:22:14 PM 576 Views
thank god iti s me; - 30/07/2011 06:12:24 PM 578 Views
I'm loving your latest typo. - 30/07/2011 07:19:01 PM 591 Views
Re: I'm loving your latest typo. - 31/07/2011 03:22:21 PM 554 Views
Re: I'm loving your latest typo. - 01/08/2011 05:01:19 AM 794 Views
you are flailing - 01/08/2011 02:52:57 PM 559 Views
No, you are reaching. - 02/08/2011 12:39:24 PM 448 Views
"we both agree that Obama's COLOSSALLY failed at leadership" - 29/07/2011 03:47:48 PM 486 Views
Some things aren't about hippies vs. fascists, and Americas well being should definitely qualify. - 29/07/2011 03:51:03 PM 491 Views
Wow, the stick up your butt has its own stick up its butt..... - 29/07/2011 09:09:20 PM 515 Views
Manners MR.!!! *NM* - 29/07/2011 09:23:38 PM 341 Views
It's all fun and games until the country goes bankrupt. - 30/07/2011 05:23:29 PM 471 Views
The British economy is struggling fairly badly under the Tories - 29/07/2011 02:54:51 PM 531 Views
I think you missed the latest update on that... - 30/07/2011 03:10:27 PM 689 Views
Oh dear - 30/07/2011 03:18:45 PM 459 Views
China - 29/07/2011 05:27:46 PM 755 Views
Re: China - 29/07/2011 05:36:03 PM 492 Views
I was actually thinking about that this morning. - 29/07/2011 05:52:08 PM 584 Views
They have us where they want us but don't dare pull the trigger. - 30/07/2011 05:46:12 PM 614 Views
Another term for Obama and we might end up there! *NM* - 29/07/2011 09:07:46 PM 304 Views

Reply to Message