Is America broke?
- Thread starter Booyah!
- Start date
apple0154
MEOW
Towns can and do. Here's a place where pension checks have stopped. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/business/23prichard.html
When my Sweety left public service she transferred her pension money from the town where she worked. It took almost 18 months to complete the transfer as the town didn't want to let it go.
Who's to say what financial condition a town will be in 10 or 15 years from now?
Maybe it's time to rent some of those older disaster/survival movies.
Food and water shortages! Mutants! Anarchy!
Let's get in the mood, folks.
Good Luck
New member
The US has been broke since the end of WWII. We have simply failed to admit it, and like many people have done over the years when they find themselves in debt trouble, borrowed from Peter to pay Paul to put off the inevitable. And like individuals who stack debt upon debt to pay off debt, we are finding we cannot do so indefinitely, either as individuals or as a nation.
Is there a solution?
Spending has to be cut, taxes must be raised, or both?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...aul-says-zeroing-out-non-military-discretion/
Spending has to be cut, taxes must be raised, or both?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...aul-says-zeroing-out-non-military-discretion/
Good Luck
New member
Most likely, the government will continue to deny the reality and continue to spend money we don't have to keep kick-starting a lame economy. It is possible that they can hold things off through a couple-three more cycles of minimal growth followed by ever deepening recessions, lasting a few decades more at most. The end result of this will be complete collapse of the economy and decades of severe depression to make the 30s look like the dot.com boom of the 90s.
Alternately, but highly unlikely, the government could decide to bite the bullet, risk the several political third rails, and do what it will take to minimize the effects of actually declaring national bankruptcy by shutting down the federal reserve system, withdrawing all but absolutely essential military forces from overseas assignments, shut down all but a very few select overseas military bases, end most entitlement programs, completely restructure those few that we keep, restructure our tax system, etc.
We'll go through some very bad times. But restructuring will take place whether we plan for it - and control it - or whether we play head in the sand until restructuring the economy is forced on us in ways that are beyond our ability to control.
Alternately, but highly unlikely, the government could decide to bite the bullet, risk the several political third rails, and do what it will take to minimize the effects of actually declaring national bankruptcy by shutting down the federal reserve system, withdrawing all but absolutely essential military forces from overseas assignments, shut down all but a very few select overseas military bases, end most entitlement programs, completely restructure those few that we keep, restructure our tax system, etc.
We'll go through some very bad times. But restructuring will take place whether we plan for it - and control it - or whether we play head in the sand until restructuring the economy is forced on us in ways that are beyond our ability to control.
Good Luck
New member
Realistically, they will be cut, one way or another when things go tango-uniform. If we can mitigate the depth, breadth, and duration of the coming lean years, any and all cuts should be considered.
But from a "what can/should we cut to prevent a total collapse, I would answer it depends on which benefits. College benefits - yes, they can be scaled back significantly. Re-enlistment bonuses, same thing.
OTOH, medical care for vets, to include mental health, absolutely not. They deserve, through the very actions that got them wounded, the absolute best care medical technology has to offer. In fact they deserve better than most are getting now. We have a sad history in the way we treat wounded vets - especially vets from wars long over. A bullet screws up someone's hip, we fix it OK NOW, but if complications result from that fix 20 years later, it's "too bad, but we cannot agree this is a combat related condition". Look at the way we treated (still treat) gulf war syndrome from the first gulf war.
apple0154
MEOW
I didn't vote because I don't believe in the concept/definition of what constitutes the bankruptcy of the US.
Consider the Sub-Saharan countries. Many of those countries have nothing. No agriculture. No natural resources. No industry. Uneducated population. The citizens have nothing and it's the citizens which make a country.
In my view it's absurd to say the US is bankrupt or, more accurately, to believe citizens have to go without proper food and shelter when the resources and technology are available, not to mention the reserves of cash held by certain corporations and private individuals.
PS. I'm cranky. I'm overdue for my afternoon nap.
So you just invent your own definition as needed, to satisfy your own preconceived, biased beliefs....I didn't vote because I don't believe in the concept/definition of what constitutes the bankruptcy of the US.
Consider the Sub-Saharan countries. Many of those countries have nothing. No agriculture. No natural resources. No industry. Uneducated population. The citizens have nothing and it's the citizens which make a country.
In my view it's absurd to say the US is bankrupt or, more accurately, to believe citizens have to go without proper food and shelter when the resources and technology are available, not to mention the reserves of cash held by certain corporations and private individuals.
PS. I'm cranky. I'm overdue for my afternoon nap.
No wonder you're a pinhead.
apple0154
MEOW
Preconceived, biased beliefs? Citizens die for their country but when it comes to sparing a few extra $$$, forget it!
Talk about pinheads.
Reminds me of a Jack Benny joke. A thief walks up to a guy in a back lane, pulls a gun, then says, "Your money or your life."
The guy just stands there. The thief repeats forcefully, "Your money or your life!"
The guy replies, "I heard you! I heard you! I'm trying to decide.
Based Chad
Was it me?
but the answer is not massive cuts into critical services. We merely need protectionism to bring jobs back to the U.S. Which will also bolster tax receipts. Contrary to popular neocon dogma, its actually a good idea to put an intrinsic value on employing citizens before others around the globe.
All politics are local. that's politics 101.
Good Luck
New member
When you make up your own definitions to words in order to wax philosophical about your drug induced hallucinations of utopia, then yes, you are acting the "pinhead".
The points being talked about have nothing to do with natural resources, or whether we "let" people starve. We will soon be faced with a decision: have our government declare full blown bankruptcy (and if the U.S. government ever does that, the depression will be felt across the globe) or we go on with our heads up our asses, believing we can just spend our way back into prosperity indefinitely (which would be the textbook definition of insanity) until the charade can no longer be maintained and we end up in a complete economic collapse.
Let's say you are in a situation where you MUST go off a cliff. No matter what you do, you WILL end up going off the cliff in front of you. It's too late to retreat; any escape route is cut off. Now, do you close your eyes and stand there wailing until something pushes you off? Or do you jump, giving you the chance to at least minimally control how and where you land at the bottom?
apple0154
MEOW
You miss the point. There is no cliff. It's a false dilemma.
If the government is the people, as many here continually remind us, then the government is not broke.