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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Re: Gross Public Debt
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 11:52 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:So anyway - any sane adults care to have a discussion? I was wondering about the graph - how can we have an even higher per-GDP debt load in the 40s and 50s and have a booming economy, while today it's staggering under less load? And when you look around the world you see similar patterns. Singapore with a very high debt load is thriving. Countries with lower debt loads are stumbling. So I think the debt per se has very little to do with economic health. What I think marks the 40s and 50s in the US is the aggressive Eisenhower redistribution of wealth. Top tax rates were at 91%. And I suspect corporate taxes were higher than now. Now, maybe the reason was to pay down the debt, but the effect was to move wealth from the dead-end holdings of the very wealthy back into the economy. Anyone have any historical or other tidbits or thoughts to share about this?
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:25 PM
BYTEMITE
Quote:The problem with the current economy is that it doesn't consider value created by real world products and labour. 1950s, US was in debt, but it was the one standing economy left in the world that was still PRODUCING things with a real world value. Now, not so much. We do still produce some things, but either much of it is going over seas, or it is resources that are quickly consumed and have questionable value (bullets, bombs). Also, not near as much debt in #dollars.
Quote:As someone who scrimps and works and pays for everything in cash because of it, including college, I am concerned about the debt. But moreso I'm concerned about who OWNS the debt and credit economies. That ground looks very unstable from where I'm standing. Especially when you factor in corporate greed and the real world products with tangible monetary value being mostly overseas. IMO, our money only seems to have value because we say it has value. That concerns me. All the social programs we have, all of it would be for nothing if our economy collapsed, and what's more, we'd be talking all of us in a great depression -maybe-famine kinda setting. That's not getting into other stuff I think about, like more robust safety nets and alternative economics. That said, I thiiiink I'm okay raising the debt ceiling, and I'm even okay raising taxes for now, but I also really think we need to cut out some of the spending and pay some of this back somehow. In the very least so it doesn't get held over us and we're forced into stuff that's basically slavery or "kill us all."
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:59 PM
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:08 PM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:25 PM
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:37 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Bytemite: And bad lending practices and bad policy from the Federal Reserve causing people to lose their homes and jobs left and right is not such a positive economic sign. Depends on the KIND of debt, Kwicko, as well as the market itself, before you can go and call an economy robust.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:39 PM
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:48 PM
FREMDFIRMA
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:50 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: If I take out a $250,000 mortgage to buy a house, that's quite a bit different than if I take out $250,000 in debt, buy a shitload of cocaine and snort myself into oblivion. Same debt amount, but totally different outcomes! :)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 2:13 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Fremdfirma: Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: If I take out a $250,000 mortgage to buy a house, that's quite a bit different than if I take out $250,000 in debt, buy a shitload of cocaine and snort myself into oblivion. Same debt amount, but totally different outcomes! :) Unless you bought that house in Detroit, that is... -Frem you were begging that one, mikey, and you know it!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 3:10 PM
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 3:59 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Bytemite: Frem: yay!
Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:15 PM
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