Raising Taxes... is what they'll do, but it's not a "way out of this mess"... just convenient, easy to do, easy to sell.
You are a fucktard. What "values" are you talking about, that whites should only have jobs and minorities should get all the shit jobs? That was America's values 50 years ago, not today. People like you make me ashamed to be a white conservative. Minorities "own" the gas stations? You realize that gas station owners only own the food mart associated with the gas station, and that Exxon or Chevron "owns" the gas station. These guys hope to make money when you go to buy lottery tickets or a bottle of coke, they make no money from gas sales.
Yes, as you say, any tax increases will not be to pay down our debt, but rather the Dems in charge will look at it as an opportunity to spend even more. Prove to me first that you can dramatically cut spending, and then I'll lead the effort for a temporary tax increase to get us out of debt. That first thing will never happen though....
Anybody that understands what is happening. Obama thinks he can communicate a recovery. Americans voted for this salesman! We all must be just about tired of this ...China is starting to look like a great place to live!
I think, unfortunately, we're in such a hole now that normal fiscal measures such as dropping taxes and cutting spending won't help us anymore. Our problem is that we are painted into a corner. Wall Street has forced companies to export all our manufacturing jobs to China, so that the regular person no longer makes their money from making stuff, but from selling stuff, and generally selling to Americans. If we actually made things, we could drop the value of the dollar and start selling to other countries and export our way out of this problem. But since we don't do that anymore, there's NO WAY for us to generate money. If people stop spending, like they've done in the past 1.5 years, then all those jobs associated with buying and selling between Americans are fucked. Normally, when you get into a financial mess, you stop spending and try to increase your income. Well, the government can't stop spending at this point, because they're the only ones generating any income in the economy, and if they stop spending, then even more jobs will be lost. So they're forced to spend. Likewise, because so much jobs are lost and because housing has lost so much value, everyone feels poor, so they stopped spending. Remember, 70% of our economy is services based, meaning that we are buying and selling amongst ourselves. The only way to recover our economy is by stimulating spending by us Americans. There are 2 ways out of this mess to get people to start spending again: 1) increase the value of the houses. This is what Bernanke has been trying to do by buying up MBSs. By forcing low interest rates, he hoped to stimulate house buying so that house prices hit a floor and start going up, and so that Americans to stop feeling "poor" so that they will spend more of their money. But that is essentially failed. Case-Shiller shows home prices dropping by 2% in the 4th quarter. This is because of lack of jobs. 2) increase jobs. Once people start getting more jobs, they will start spending again, and they will buy houses, etc. But the so-called stimulus by Obama last year has only lost us millions of jobs. Good job. (Last year, I would have included increase the stock market because 401ks got decimated and that also made people feel poor, but Obama and the PPT team did a good job of juicing the markets last year so that most of the retirees were in decent shape as long as they didn't change anything.) So now this is the hole we're in. We need to either increase housing or increase jobs. To increase housing Bernanke has the nuclear option which is to inflate everything by printing more money, so that everyone gets out of debt. This is somewhat unlikely, but it's still on the table. If he does this, we all might as well leave the US because the US dollar will become the US peso, it will lose reserve status, and everything will lose value relative to the world, and things we import will become very expensive (like gas). However, Americans (with fixed rate loans) will become out of debt, which would eventually lead to a recovering economy. The other way is to increase taxes. As I've mentioned, if consumers won't spend, then the government will squeeze the money out of the ones who still have jobs and then spend it in hopes that it will stimulate jobs. Will this work? I dunno, we've never been in this situation before. But to me, logically, it's the only thing they can do now, unless there is a immaculate miraculous recovery in consumer spending.
There's no point in trying to find a political solution. The underlying issue is that we have a fiat debt-based monetary system. Government overspending, Pension and entitlement unsustainability, corporate/banking malfeasance, global trade imbalances, global financial imbalances... are all but symptoms of the current monetary system. If we have a monetary system that can easily expand, then human nature being what it is, we will overspend, overpromise, and overspeculate. We did. Period. Bush and Obama did not cut spending because the economic system would collapse on their watch. No one will cut spending voluntarily and allow such a situation to occur. If I were President, I would do the same thing and hope the debt bomb goes off on the next guy's watch. Be honest with yourself... you would too. So where does that lead us? An eventually de facto default or total collapse. We can debate solutions all we want, my thinking is it's pointless. Just prepare for yourself and your own for when the great reset hits. You don't want to miss out on opportunities while the system, however comatose, continues, but at the same time, prepare and invest accordingly: Have some silver and gold coins as well as a stash of cash on hand. Belong to a tight community network of friends and family that are nearby - and I mean walking distance. Get to know your neighbors, you will need them and they will need you in ways you cannot imagine today. Be prepared for self defense, there may not be enough cops/national guard where you live to protect you from others that are not prepared. Have access to arable land, and a means of getting there in case of fuel shortages. Pick up gardening, it's a great and rewarding hobby and beats going to the gym. Your sweat will produce something more valuable than any treadmill could. The "transition" for lack of a better word, could be gradual, or quick, or more likely, at different times, both. Yeah, I know, this is a trading/economic forum. But sometimes, the obvious needs to be pointed out. And for those that laugh at my thoughts: I am glad you do. I am glad that most won't believe me. You know why? The system is dead and the only thing propping it up is ignorance which I also describe as "faith." But even ignorance has limits, but nonetheless, I am happy that the majority's ignorance is giving me extra time to invest and prepare accordingly.