Sustainability

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
41

Push,

I don’t think people were voting for entitlements and handouts, I think they were voting for some fairness in the economic system, some common sense regarding foreign policy, and and investment in education and infrastructure, all of which should drive growth in the economy for the next several decades (in theory).

Sure some people think the election means free $, but they are not a majority, they are just stupid and loud and they make good tv/radio for the right wing talk show hosts.

Most people want to know that Social Security and Healthcare will be around for them, and if that means eliminating the upper limit on employee contributions then they are fine with it. I think you misunderstand the typical “liberal democrat”, most have no desire for welfare, most want to (and do) work hard to achieve some semblance of a good life for them and their family, most love America, support the troops and want to keep America #1 for the foreseeable future, they just have a different plan for getting there.

The choices will obviously be difficult to make but some defense cuts and overseas base closings may be in order (a la Ron Paul), lowering corporate tax rates to 9-12% to bring them back (with stiff penalties for the ones that refuse), making welfare programs time limited and job readiness focused (you get 2 years or so of $ and you get to work on infrastructure projects locally i.e. you learn how to weld and you assist in bridge repairs), reduce foreign aid (focus on supporting allies like Israel), consolidate some government services, eliminate the top cap on employee SS contributions, raise the employee SS contribution by one quarter of a percent, there is probably a lot more but this would be a huge start I think.

44

What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?

45

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.

46

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

Something like that sounds like a great idea.

I was thinking while eating a moment ago that perhaps something like a own debt tax of 1% that went directly to pay of the debt untill the debt where gone could be a solution. But thought it sounded to simple to actually work. Cool to see that others have similar thoughts.

47

What the US could learn from Canada in regards to fiscal responsibility.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/10814175.cms

“Everyone wants to know how we did it,” said political economist Brian Lee Crowley, head of the Ottawa-based thinktank Macdonald-Laurier Institute, who has examined the lessons of the 1990s.

But to win its budget wars, Canada first had to realize how dire its situation was and then dramatically shrink the size of government rather than just limit the pace of spending growth.

It would eventually oversee the biggest reduction in Canadian government spending since demobilization after World War Two. The big cuts, and relatively small tax increases, brought a budget surplus within four years.

Canadian debt shrank to 29 percent of gross domestic product in 2008-09, from a peak of 68 percent in 1995-96, and the budget was in the black for 11 consecutive years until the 2008-09 recession.

For Canada, the vicious debt circle turned into a virtuous cycle which rescued a currency that had been dubbed the “northern peso.” Canada went from having the second worst fiscal position in the Group of Seven industrialized countries, behind only Italy, to easily the best.

It is far from a coincidence that the recent recession was shorter and shallower here than in the United States. Indeed, by January, Canada had recovered all the jobs lost in the downturn, while the US has hardly been able to dent its high unemployment.

48

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.[/quote]

7 trillion transactions per day? Shit man we only gotta do it for a couple days and the debt is GONE…boom.

50

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.[/quote]

7 trillion transactions per day? Shit man we only gotta do it for a couple days and the debt is GONE…boom.[/quote]

and by trillion I obviously meant BILLION :frowning:

51

The motto of Canada is peace, order and good government as opposed life, liberty and the property.

Good governance is a part of Canadian identity.

52

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.[/quote]

Just a random idea…I defer to your number crunching.

What if it was just a sales tax…or maybe a smaller percentage? Like .05%

And I get your holy burden…but so is 16 Trillion.

54

Another article on what the US could learn from Canada

Ottawa?s chosen route back to surplus involved both spending cuts and tax hikes, in a ratio of roughly seven to one. The budget was balanced within six years, and Canada won its prized AAA rating back within a decade.

?You basically have to grasp the nettle,? Paul Martin, the finance minister at the time, told Reuters in an interview. ?Fundamentally, you have to have an end game, you have to take immediate action.?

Martin, also a former prime minister, said he was confident the United States could balance its budget, but it would need tax hikes as well as spending cuts.

?The actions have to be primarily on cutting expenditures, but the fact is that you cannot do it unless everybody is willing to come to the party, and if you eliminate tax increases? you?re never going to make it.?

55

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.[/quote]

I thought the UK had something similar to that except that the % are 0.1 or 00.1% or something. It has a specific name, but cant remember it right now. As far as I know it is such a low % that it has no negativ effect on the stock market, but it ads to the tax revenue of the British state. A brit could probably shed more light on this since I dont know the specifics and are only going after memory.

Actually I think it is called a tobino tax if I remember correctly.

57

[quote]BrianHanson wrote:
Push,

I think they were voting for some fairness in the economic system, [/quote]

What isn’t fair about the current one?

What are we cutting to pay for this?

We are about 1.4 trillion over extended. What are you cutting to pay for this? Food Stamps? Planned Parenthood? Medicare? Social Security? Defense?

[quote]
Most people want to know that Social Security and Healthcare will be around for them, and if that means eliminating the upper limit on employee contributions then they are fine with it.[/quote]

Medicare doesn’t have an upper limit, and all raising the limit does is kick the can down the road so my daughter has to fix the problem. She says “No dada you handle your own mistakes”.

Oh and what was Obama’s plan to fix SS?

I live in Mass, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear an actual description of a typical liberal Dem.

No, maybe the older people.

You could cut defense to zero and still spend 500 billion more than we take in.

YES! lets ignore market forces or allocation of resources, and force the market to put resources where it doesn’t want them to be.

This should work perfectly I tell you, can’t see a single thing wrong here…

Indentured Servitude?

(Not that I have a problem with welfare recipient working, just hesitant to instantly make the government employees.)

Can we just eliminate the bureaucracies that obama created to start?

59

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.[/quote]

7 trillion transactions per day? Shit man we only gotta do it for a couple days and the debt is GONE…boom.[/quote]

and by trillion I obviously meant BILLION :frowning:
[/quote]

The administrative burden would be too high, and no way would the government ever repeal it so we couldn’t, but I think those are records, the average is 4bil (I believe) and some are loss transactions.

60

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
What about a 0.5% tax on every financial transaction that occurs in this country…until the debt is paid off?

Take a $100 out at the ATM and 50c goes towards the debt?

Any takers?[/quote]

No way man. That would cripple the market, lol…

http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3007&category=3

Holy burden.[/quote]

Just a random idea…I defer to your number crunching.

What if it was just a sales tax…or maybe a smaller percentage? Like .05%

And I get your holy burden…but so is 16 Trillion. [/quote]

Well, assuming you could get this through the bankers lobby, which wouldn’t happen ever in our lifetime, the admin fees on trade accounts would sky rocket.

The implementation costs alone would be insane and passed down to the consumer. This would also slow the velocity of money, which isn’t a great idea right now, and even though it is short percentage, in aggregate your looking at a lot of money leaving the market. (My 401k is in there, it needs to go up, at all times)

Plus I don’t like the idea of giving a bloated government more money. I would prefer they can act responsible then I’ll give them some money.

It would have to be something outside of income tax though, and not kept in the general fund for me to have trust that it would go to the debt.