Some Thoughts on US Spending

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Reply Sun 28 Sep, 2008 08:11 pm
Well as you are probably aware, there is a plan to bail out the US economy by the tax payers (US citizens) paying 700 billion dollars. I don't know if this is supposed to permanently keep America from entering this probable depression or severe recession but the GDP is somewhere around 14 trillion annually, and 700 billion is a serious concern which newspapers seem to be less concerned about compared to petty spiritual issues of McCain and Palin. Who cares! Yeah, I am disturbed by how Palin is sharing her thoughts on God and how dinosaurs and humans coexisted, but the economy is what matters right now, especially with how the Republicans have ignored its stability for too long.

According to Homer Truet Bone, "It cost 75 cents to kill a man in Caesar's time. The price rose to about $3000 per man during the Napoleonic war; to $5000 in the American civil war, and then to $21,000 per man in WWI. Estimates for future wars indicate that it may cost $50,000 for future warring countries per man killed. Also, during the Iraq war, it cost the US Congress 11 million dollars per man killed!

Instead of taking lives and having this needless war the public didn't want truly in the first place, we should spend that money on alternative fuel like solar or wind power. Heck even nuclear is better than oil, not that I'm in favour of nuclear, solar is my choice, especially with the new 3D cells as they're called that will generate 500 times as much power.

NRDC: Press Release - Big Oil Allies in Congress Vote Against Energy Solutions 61 Times

This basically says that the US congress has denied bills to help alternative energy sources be the ideal for USA 61 times!!:eek: And US doesn't have universal healthcare! Yet its amazing how much the incentive corporations get from the government when corporations are harsh to the people who are sponsoring this scandal to begin with. Its kind of evil, and consumerism, followed by some ignorance that fuels this.

I have to say, it doesn't matter if the democrats or republicans get elected, to me. I would define the better of the two by how much they put the people over the corporations. It is the people's money, there should be referendums for big spending like 700 billion!!

The needs a self sustaining economy, the people don't want greed and such linearity that is only negative to other nations and the Earth as a whole. In what should be a democracy, the public has little say in the matter of creating a self sustaining economy and society beneficial in the long term.

The US Congress:poke-eye:, and the public should also get a double:poke-eye::poke-eye:, for the apathy and lack of assertiveness is part of the problem.

If anybody wants to contribute to how the US should spend budget spending and Canada for that matter because I live in Canada it matters to me:D, thats what this topic is about. (In respect to the next term, 4 years)Smile
 
Victor Eremita
 
Reply Sun 28 Sep, 2008 08:50 pm
@Holiday20310401,
Here four words for Americans:

Welcome to Socialism, America!
 
madel
 
Reply Mon 29 Sep, 2008 02:05 pm
@Victor Eremita,
There is indeed a political analyst out there (name escapes me right now) who controversially suggests that capitalism naturally turns into socialism. It's interesting.

I just read that the house voted against the bail out. I don't know how I feel about this. While I wasn't for those in charge of this mess going scot-free, I also recognize that if our government doesn't do *something* then we are in serious "effing" trouble.

Go go Gadget serious "effing" trouble...
 
ariciunervos
 
Reply Mon 29 Sep, 2008 03:15 pm
@madel,
My advice is to invest in pitchforks and torches industries. :letme-at-em:
 
Richardgrant
 
Reply Mon 29 Sep, 2008 05:14 pm
@ariciunervos,
The answer to all our problems in the world are within man himself, not in somebody or something or someplace, I know how to change world from within my self, the first step is to let all judgment go out the window and come back to within ones own self.
 
VideCorSpoon
 
Reply Mon 29 Sep, 2008 05:32 pm
@ariciunervos,
Holiday,

First, the bill is not a bail out. The money is both lent and invested in troubled companies, not written off in the books like an earmark. That lent and invested money will generate a return in the future. But I don't think republicans are entirely at fault. Remember it was a democrat that signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act, deregulating banks and allowing them to take the road we seem to be coming to the end of. It sucks to say, but that 700 billion dollars is a small price to pay for a booster shot. The financial companies got themselves sick, but we are dependent on them. Very easy to blame the republicans, but harder to see that everyone is at fault.

As to the spending money alternative power instead of the war? do you really think they would fund alternative energy if there was no war? If there was no war, that high expenditure would just not be leveraged in national debt. Unfortunately, that debt goes up regardless.

As to alternative energy, I'm surprised that though many are clamoring for solar and wind power, they have yet to find out how inefficient it is. The costs and maintenance of wind turbines, the inefficiency of solar arrays (which from what I understand only work at half their efficiency anyway), and not to mention the biggest problem of all? energy storage in batteries. The only viable source besides oil I would seriously consider would be clean burning coal. New CO2 scrubbers are said to capture 95% of Co2 given off by coal plants. I would say that the US hasn't accepted any alternative energy bills because none of the bills were universally viable options. How would you like to fund a trillion dollar program only to find out that two years later when it was ready to go, it is relatively underpowered or useless because of some new technology?

That the US doesn't have universal health care, I'm actually glad. That's much of the reason why health care has advanced so much in the US, because of private initiative. I also understand that many Canadians come to the US rather than stay in Canada for advanced treatments. I also hear something about queue lines for advance treatments. Now that is scary.

The US has done as well as it has for so long because of its greed. Though it seems like they bit off a bit more than they could chew this time. But there is a silver lining to all of this, which is that of market volatility. That is how the stock market becomes strong, buy low and sell high... and we most certainly are at a low.
 
 

 
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