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| Economy |
| Is America a failed state? |
| 2010-01-20 |
| Excerpt: The big thing that the American electorate has learned during 2009 is that Obama is all talk. There are many little things that annoy voters: special treatment for trade-union health plans, a Treasury secretary who seems to have given special treatment to Goldman Sachs in the rescue of the insurance giant AIG, and a confusing foreign policy. But the idling of one-fifth of the population overwhelms every other issue. Tens of millions of families that only two years ago felt affluent and secure are now anxious and impoverished. And Obama can do nothing about it. |
| Posted by:Uncle Phester |
| #19 You guys may joke that military serves was fun but the 60s gave us the Marxist hippie menace that has plagued the US like the clap ever since. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-01-20 18:58 |
| #18 Income Taxes/ Consumption Taxes harm Comparative Advantage. Much better to tax Location Value and IP. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-20 17:31 |
| #17 both are necessary but not sufficient except together. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-01-20 16:03 |
| #16 The real Key to Human Advancement is reciprocity via Comparative Advantage. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-20 15:24 |
| #15 What was wrong with 1968? Government sent me on a vacation, gave me room and board and all the beer and bullets I needed. Nirvana. Got a point, I was in the NAVY with Air Conditioning, Clean water and good food from 66 to 69 and all the bullshit I could stand, Catch here is I had the job of keeping the Machinery running, I nursed it, fixed it and repaired it as needed, as I was on a huge floating Machineshop, Fixing it often included making the parts myself when needed. I was bored shitless while a war raged elsewhere (I was in the Atlantic Fleet, Bad mistake, I understand now the Pacific fleet is Laid back, and the Atlantic fleet is 90% Assholes (Yes I met quite a few)) Long story short, the sheer number of assholes in power is the main reason I got out and didn't re-up |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-01-20 14:45 |
| #14 And deferred gratification is the key to human advancement. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-01-20 13:01 |
| #13 Not if the income is saved instead of consumed. Saved until it's used. Saving's just a deferral of consumption. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-20 12:55 |
| #12 What was wrong with 1968? Government sent me on a vacation, gave me room and board and all the beer and bullets I needed. Nirvana. |
| Posted by: bman 2010-01-20 11:38 |
| #11 Taxes on Consumption are income taxes as they lower effective income. Not if the income is saved instead of consumed. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-01-20 11:15 |
| #10 1979 was worse than what we have today, by a long shot. 1968 was infinitely worse. Declinism? Been there, done that. Remember the Japanese Juggernaut? Oh, did I say Japan? I meant China. Honest. Er, Brazil. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-01-20 10:31 |
| #9 The point of production IS Consumption. Taxes on Consumption are income taxes as they lower effective income. Just Tax rent seeking (Improvement discounted land values and IP) and externalities such as real pollution. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-20 10:21 |
#8 We need to shift the tax burden, moving it away from savings and investment and toward consumption. We should replace individual and corporate income taxes with consumption-based taxes. Yes |
| Posted by: AllahHateMe 2010-01-20 09:05 |
| #7 America is not a failed state. I just agree with some of the other posters with my yup, yup, and yup. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-01-20 08:48 |
| #6 Yup, yup, yup, and yup. If one gets out of the political cocoon of Washington, the country is O.K. We have survived a Revolutionary War, world wars, a Civil War, other wars, the Great Depression and we will survive Washington and its bumbling and over-reaching. Now we need to get Washington off our backs. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-01-20 08:45 |
| #5 Our institutional structures are fine. Our society is at peace-- race relations are better than they've ever been in our history-- and our fundamental economy is dynamic, resilient, flexible, entrepreneurial. Our problem is simple: we have an incompetent, corrupt and shambolic political class that's in hock to oligarchic moneyfiddlers and asset-flippers. Fix that, and the economy will soar again. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-01-20 07:47 |
| #4 America, a failed state? Yyyyyeah, when bodies start piling up in the streets. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-01-20 05:42 |
| #3 For those old enough to remember the meme is a repeat of what was the refrain in the mid-70s, upon the bug out from Vietnam, the Arab oil embargo and its impact upon the economy, and the infamous Carter malaise. We've seen the best times already, yada, yada, yada. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-01-20 05:20 |
| #2 Don't kid yourself your majesty---Obama is just a symptom. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-01-20 01:54 |
| #1 We are not a failed state. Not yet, not after this election. However, Obama IS a failed President. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2010-01-20 01:28 |