toldailytopic: Spend more or spend less? How would you get the US economy back on tra

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for April 29th, 2011 09:21 AM

toldailytopic: Spend more or spend less? How would you get the US economy back on track?

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[elohiym]

Spend more. Our government should eliminate the central bank system, print debt-free money and spend it into the economy, and make deposit expansion by banks illegal. Problems solved.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Spend more. Our government should eliminate the central bank system, print debt-free money and spend it into the economy, and make deposit expansion by banks illegal. Problems solved.

You are kidding right?

 

[genuineoriginal]

It has nothing to do with spending more or less money.

The best way to fix the economy is to impose a tariff of 25% on all goods and materials entering the US borders from any other country, with no exceptions, including goods and materials from the US that were assembled in a foreign country and then returned to the US.

This will provide a large revenue source to the government, lower the demand for foreign goods and materials, and encourage companies to use US goods, materials, and labor.

 

[elohiym]

You are kidding right?

What you need to know about deposit expansion is...

 

[elohiym]

It has nothing to do with spending more or less money.

That's like saying credit expansion and contraction has nothing to do with getting the economy back on track. lain:

That dog won't hunt.

 

[elohiym]

For those who want to watch the full version of the Secrets of Oz, you can watch it here for free:

Secrets of Oz

It's long, but worth watching.

 

[Squishes]

We ought to continue to spend, but not on designer clothes, overpriced houses or the latest Apple product; we ought to increase spending on items that increase production.

 

[Alate_One]

Cutting government spending can actually cost jobs rather than create them. Really, government should be spending MORE not less. . . .

I think we could really use to slap a small tax on a per share, per trade basis on securities transactions. That might actually curb speculation, bring down gas prices and help solve our deficit all at once. But I'm afraid both parties are far too much in the pocket of wall street for it to actually happen.

 

[Squishes]

Cutting government spending can actually cost jobs rather than create them. Really, government should be spending MORE not less. . . .

This isn't true in all cases, and it's historically difficult to decipher when deficit spending should be curbed and when it should be expanded.

I think we could really use to slap a small tax on a per share, per trade basis on securities transactions. That might actually curb speculation, bring down gas prices and help solve our deficit all at once. But I'm afraid both parties are far too much in the pocket of wall street for it to actually happen.

Though politically popular, most economists shy away from solving deficit problems by tax increases on those with volatile incomes. Taxing those in the 35k-500k range is basically your only hope of solving any debt problem unless governments on a global scale collude to tax international transactions.

 

[rexlunae]

Spend more on smart things, less on stupid things. Seems so simple until you figure out which is which.

 

[Nick M]

How can the people spend more (economic growth) if the government takes more from them?

 

[1PeaceMaker]

Solutions don't come through spending more or less. They come through eliminating the debt frauds financially sucking us dry.

ETA: That's not going to happen until people repent of spiritual corruption.

 

[kmoney]

Spend more. Our government should eliminate the central bank system, print debt-free money and spend it into the economy, and make deposit expansion by banks illegal. Problems solved.

:up:

 

[kmoney]

For those who want to watch the full version of the Secrets of Oz, you can watch it here for free:

Secrets of Oz

It's long, but worth watching.

I think you told me about that. I still need to watch it.

 

[rexlunae]

How can the people spend more (economic growth) if the government takes more from them?

Because every penny the government takes in, it spends, which means that it ends up in someone's pocket. Well, unless we try to pay down the debt.

 

[Alate_One]

This isn't true in all cases, and it's historically difficult to decipher when deficit spending should be curbed and when it should be expanded.

If government is taking up an overly large proportion of the economy then cutting spending can increase job growth, however this hasn't been true in a very long time, if ever. Currently we can quantify how many jobs would be lost due to particular spending cuts and there's currently no reason to think the private sector is going to fill those jobs since job growth has been *very* slow.

Though politically popular, most economists shy away from solving deficit problems by tax increases on those with volatile incomes. Taxing those in the 35k-500k range is basically your only hope of solving any debt problem unless governments on a global scale collude to tax international transactions.

The primary purpose of that tax wouldn't be solely to fix the deficit - tax increases on those you mention (and higher) are a better way to do that. But you might curb some of the speculation that increases prices on many items and hurts economic growth to boot. Basically speculators get rich making bets and everyone else pays for them. They add essentially nothing to the economy. You'll note that wall street has recovered while the rest of the economy is still suffering.

 

[1PeaceMaker]

Because every penny the government takes in, it spends, which means that it ends up in someone's pocket. Well, unless we try to pay down the debt.

In our past, we have seen times when we cut taxes but saw more tax revenues. That's because it stimulates the economy.

If we want to prosper, we must cut away all the crazy red tape from the modern worker, and let him flourish as a free man.

 

[WandererInFog]

Cutting government spending can actually cost jobs rather than create them. Really, government should be spending MORE not less. . . .

I think we could really use to slap a small tax on a per share, per trade basis on securities transactions. That might actually curb speculation, bring down gas prices and help solve our deficit all at once. But I'm afraid both parties are far too much in the pocket of wall street for it to actually happen.

All this would do is move the trading to other commodities markets overseas and thereby do nothing to stop the speculation while moving more capital outside the US. This is a very serious problem that's developed in the commodities market where curbing speculation will require coordinated efforts on the part of several major countries (at a minimum the US, EU, China, Russia, India and Japan) to have any significant effect, and it wouldn't be certain without having the cooperation of at least several others (Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, UAE, and Argentina).

 

[JoeyArnold]

Spend more. Our government should eliminate the central bank system, print debt-free money and spend it into the economy, and make deposit expansion by banks illegal. Problems solved.

What is debt-free money? Is it money that won't get you in debt, in trouble, ever? Money that can buy you things because it's money, but money that is debt free, capable of keeping people from all potential future pending debt.