This totally ignors the fact that we were a protectionist economy with high import tarrifs, we were not the world's policemen and we were not shipping our jobs overseas. These along with the high percentage of agriculture which was performed by many "family" farms for their own survival, without risk of lawsuits from mega corporations that claim "ownership" of the genetics of the food plants have all changed, what we "were" and where we "were" to where we are now.
Taking perscription drugs from the elderly will not reduce the interest on the national debt.
Rising inflation will reduce the interest on the national debt, but will substantially raise prices for every thing here, because we import most everything. That, with reduced "entitlements" and more and more job cuts will make for a very scary place to live.
Hope you all stocked up on your beans and ammo.
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I do agree with your comments, but it wasn't ever about taking prescription drugs from the Elderly.
Firstly, it is about taking all their money and putting it into investments that ensure removal of their net worth, while at the same, enrich investment firms.
Then you drive interest rates to zero so that the investment firms or the government don't have to pay any interest to the elderly on whatever money they have left.
Then you transfer the interest and principal the elderly put away into social security all their working lives to the investment firms via privatization of Social Security, so that they can just get it over with quickly and painlessly and get on with other more profitable and creative enterprise using that money. Like, how about, just taking it.
Then you take away medicaid, so they can no longer stay in the nursing home. But who would care anyway, since many have Alzheimer's and don't know who or where they are. So it is then only necessary to point them in a direction away from the nursing home and let them wander into the street, away from the nursing home (which was only meant for the rich, anyway). Then one can decrease taxes on the wealthiest of Americans further, which would create massive amounts of jobs,
Then you take away their prescriptions, because after all. The one's that are entitled should be the one's that are wealthy and those that are not wealthy, that have anything, should turn over their wealth and any entitlements to their proper owner - the entitled few.
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Has anyone noticed that the media conversation (including the Rating Agencies) is always on the expense side and not the revenue side, as in JOBS. We aren't even talking taxes here, this is the Main Revenue issue.
It is no secret that the entitled few don't want their ability to move jobs overseas restricted; hence, the total silence on the job creation or revenue side of the equation.
There isn't an economist in the world that would focus just on one side of the balance sheet. There is the tax revenue and expense side of the Federal budget, which needs to be managed prudently and balanced for long-term solvency. But the very foundation of our economy and which puts the Federal budget in a secondary position of importance, is job growth (without revenue, just forget about everything else, including tax breaks).
Hey, lets not let Murdock dictate the conversation. Why don't we introduce JOB GROWTH into the conversation and start moving jobs from overseas to our own shores again.
If you were baking up a solution, what ingredients would you use? Why, I would first ponder heavily upon my spice cabinet and fridge. Then I would pull out these items first:
1) Cut back on military spending.
2) Create incentives for job growth here vs overseas; which includes, tax breaks to companies creating most of their jobs here.
3) Put a tax on imports to create a more even competitive enviroment for our businesses, which will help fund tax breaks in #2.
4) Raise the retirement age for younger Americans.
5) Stop giving subsidies to giant agri-business and give it back to the small farmer. Stop giving subsidies to oil companies and given them to alternate energy companies and installation programs.
6) Stop the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, until we can fiscally afford them again.
7) Look for ways to trim costs for medicaid, and medical expenses by taking back the medical system from Wall Street and allowing small operators to profit in such systems again. [The pattern is, small companies benefit everyone, very large companies benefit themselves at everyone's expense.]
6) Controlling or limiting lawsuit awards; particularly, against physicians and small clinics, so we can reduce medical costs further and can have the "country doctor" working out of their home again and creating life-long care relationships with their local patients.
7) Forget FREE TRADE. Nothing is FREE. We are now paying the price.
8) Restart enforcement (and strict enforcement) of our antitrust laws and stop allowing mega mergers to happen and companies to dominate competition.
9) Stop after-hours trading in the stock market and restore the old accounting standards, so people can actually know how a company is doing financially.