tuna55 wrote:
huge-O-chavez wrote:
Duke wrote:
huge-O-chavez wrote:
In 2009 all assests in the US were valued at $40 Trillion +.. http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/01/worlds_assets_h.html
If we wanted to pay off the debt we could very easily... Sell stuff, make money.. Pay off debt. It's pretty simple..
You first!
Ha.. No.. But thats the point, It is possible for us to pay off our debt tomorrow. It's just that we choose to keep borrowing..
I don't think you can go from:
"The government has to take every dime we earn forcefully and not let us have it to spend on silly things like food for nearly an entire year"
to
"we could easily pay off the debt"
There is a reason that we don't live under a kingdom anymore. It is our money. The government has abused it. Abusing it further probably isn't the solution. That's like taking a rod knocking, coolant spewing, misfiring engine without oil and saying "What this thing needs is some nitrous out on the autobahn for about 45 minutes flat out"
naaa man, you miss my point. It's that if we, as a total nation, determined that paying off the debt was an actual priority, we could come up with some way to pay it off very rapidly. It's just not a priority.
huge-O-chavez wrote:
tuna55 wrote:
huge-O-chavez wrote:
Duke wrote:
huge-O-chavez wrote:
In 2009 all assests in the US were valued at $40 Trillion +.. http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/01/worlds_assets_h.html
If we wanted to pay off the debt we could very easily... Sell stuff, make money.. Pay off debt. It's pretty simple..
You first!
Ha.. No.. But thats the point, It is possible for us to pay off our debt tomorrow. It's just that we choose to keep borrowing..
I don't think you can go from:
"The government has to take every dime we earn forcefully and not let us have it to spend on silly things like food for nearly an entire year"
to
"we could easily pay off the debt"
There is a reason that we don't live under a kingdom anymore. It is our money. The government has abused it. Abusing it further probably isn't the solution. That's like taking a rod knocking, coolant spewing, misfiring engine without oil and saying "What this thing needs is some nitrous out on the autobahn for about 45 minutes flat out"
naaa man, you miss my point. It's that if we, as a total nation, determined that paying off the debt was an actual priority, we could come up with some way to pay it off very rapidly. It's just not a priority.
I don't miss you point, I am just pointing (ha!) out that your point is very silly. It's like telling me that I could easily make my 2001 PT Cruiser the fastest road race car in the world, I just don't make it a priority. You're right, I could, technically, make that happen, but it would be insane and making things about twenty three quadrillion harder than they need to be.
tuna55 wrote:
You're right, I could, technically, make that happen, but it would be insane and making things about twenty three quadrillion harder than they need to be.
disagree look at how we paid off WWII debt while growing jobs....
It could also be less painful in the long run to pull the bandaid off quickly.
SVreX wrote:
That's the deficit, not the debt. That's how much we need EVERY year.
The debt is about 10 times that.
Not getting back into this. Just saying, yeah, I know that. You could tell when I said that was the defict. That was my way of saying that's how big the deficit is.
Sorry, don't get it. We need ten times MORE money, so raising taxes becomes a bad idea. Don't we need....
nevermind.
huge-O-chavez wrote:
tuna55 wrote:
You're right, I could, technically, make that happen, but it would be insane and making things about twenty three quadrillion harder than they need to be.
disagree look at how we paid off WWII debt while growing jobs....
It could also be less painful in the long run to pull the bandaid off quickly.
They raised the taxes to 100% during WW2? wow! Who knew! Even my relatives alive then have never mentioned that!
What does this have to do with a bandaid?
WWII debt? Last I heard, the ONLY country that paid its entire WWII debt was Finland. Britain made the last payment on its 4.4 billion 'Lend-Lease' rebuilding debt in 2006 but that does NOT include what was loaned/sold/given by the US, only the aftermath funding. Most other countries have just let it drop. Sort of like your ne'er do well relative who always forgets his/her wallet.
Regardless, the debt and deficit are the two largest problems facing this country. Selling off assets to pay it off is NOT the answer, that's like selling your car to pay your credit cards but not modifying the wild drunken spending habits which got you into the hole in the first place.
It is long past time to kill off interpretive basketweaving and its ilk to trim down the outlay side of things. Taxes will have to go up to take care of the income side. The pain will last for the rest of this generation and into the next. Yeah it sucks but it's the only way to fix it for real.
Otherwise we will be the world's beggars.
tuna55 wrote:
They raised the taxes to 100% during WW2? wow! Who knew! Even my relatives alive then have never mentioned that!
What does this have to do with a bandaid?
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213
Even under Reagan Rich folks paid 50% tax instead of 35% tax..
huge-O-chavez wrote:
tuna55 wrote:
They raised the taxes to 100% during WW2? wow! Who knew! Even my relatives alive then have never mentioned that!
What does this have to do with a bandaid?
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213
Even under Reagan Rich folks paid 50% tax instead of 35% tax..
Oh, I see, you're on about taxing only the rich, I see. I think we should tax the rich too, the same as the middle class! Punishing success is a bad thing. Plus, I heard (and have not verified) the statistic that if we taxed the top 1% who pay 40% of the taxes at 100% of their income we would only reduce the deficit for a given year by like 1/5th. You'll have to do better than that. maybe stop spending so much money on stupid things.
tuna55 wrote:
Punishing success is a bad thing.
Yes those stratospheric tax rates really hurt job growth in the 50's and 60's...
I'm not trying to tell people what to do... Just trying to get people to think differently. Cutting spending by itself won't work.
So far I've seen people say we can't raise taxes but we need to cut services, but noone can agree on what services or how much... And... God forbid we touch anything that any special interest with enough clout wants.... Cause then you're hosed.. Cut military spending and you hurt job growth in that sector, a sector with 100% USA based manufacturing. but its most of the pie. Don't cut subsidies for corn or Ag or big oil... I could go on and on..
So I'm trying to think of different things, like lets see.. Our debt load now is about the same as after WWII (Jenseman, sorry but you were way off base with the lend-lease stuff, think how we paid for sherman tanks.. War Bonds are debt..) We got out of it then by high taxes and big investment in our roads/bridges etc.. But nope.. Don't want to do that again..
I just get the feeling that this isn't really a priority of the country and never will be.
Frustrating situation, no?
In reply to huge-O-chavez:
Yup it is. It sure is.
