A few things many do not know about the economy

[For-Life]

- The deficits that most countries have incurred over the last two years during the recession have been blamed on spending. Little do people know that, while spending went up, most of the losses are due with major shortfalls in taxes. When the recession hit, the mix of people losing their jobs and corporations taking loses (since corporations only pay taxes on profits), severally lowered the amount of revenue the government was taking in.

- Welfare is not the biggest cause of taxation

- The government budget works like a household budget. For you to live day to day, you need a source of income and then you spend that income. You cannot eliminate all of your spending. If you lower your income, then you could make less than you spend and you will then be in debt. Well, a lot of people do not understand that the income the government needs to not be in debt is what we call a tax. Now, you can lower your expenses, but since you cannot eliminate them, you still need taxes.

- What is debt to a government? Some people tend to believe that debt does not matter. Who is going to force your nation to repay that debt? Little do people know that the government pays interest on that debt every year. So a portion of your taxes goes to paying interest; ie: burning money.

[uncut]

You must have landed a gov't. job, eh!

Serious topic, For-Life, and a good one. Where do trade deficits fit into the picture of a country's debt? How do we, as citizens, contribute to bettering a country's condition on these financial fronts. Should we become more productive? Can we increase productivity, or do we focus on domestic sources of resources or products? I have more questions than answers.

[For-Life]

Yep, I work for the government :)

But I do not believe all industry should be government oriented. I think the biggest thing about our society is we need to encourage our industry. Not only for big business, but for small. But I think the biggest thing of that has to be entrepreneurship. We can never forget our entrepreneurial spirit. I find that too many nations focus on long, outdated industries that no longer can be profitable and ignore the entrepreneurs. That is what creates trade deficits and it is what destroys an economy.

A well developed economy will bounce back from recession. Many nations will move on from this recession just fine. Others will not. So I think we have to look at the decisions we make and what effects they will have in the longterm.

[MikeAurelius]

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

If you hear this, run screaming in the other direction.

[For-Life]

[DragonLensmanWV]

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

If you hear this, run screaming in the other direction.

Around heah, them's revenooer words,and it's them that's a screaming runnin' away frum us'ns.

[uncut]

Around heah, them's revenooer words,and it's them that's a screaming runnin' away frum us'ns.

Moonshine hidden. Crop hanging in bins.

[uncut]

@ For-Life:

I feel that the government responsibility is to lead by example. The populace will not behave responsibly if the government isn't showing restraint, or law and order or equality treatment of all its citizens. I point to examples of waste, fund mismanagment, lack of law enforcement, and backbone in many levels of government, not just federally.

[For-Life]

@ For-Life:

I feel that the government responsibility is to lead by example. The populace will not behave responsibly if the government isn't showing restraint, or law and order or equality treatment of all its citizens. I point to examples of waste, fund mismanagment, lack of law enforcement, and backbone in many levels of government, not just federally.

I agree. It is the duty of the government to be transparent and accountable. Government employees have to realize that they are being funded with tax dollars. Listen, when I used to work in municipal government, the only nicer thing we had than a private business is a better photocopier machine. With 4000 residents, you need one. But we would never get bonuses and we would never use organization funds for cakes or coffee, ect. Now, I never minded, because it was tax dollars.

At my current office, I will admit, they are not as frugal as I would like, but they are getting better. When someone prints one piece of paper on colour, I flip out.

In our country we have done well. Not great, but well. In the 90s and most of the 2000s, we were running balanced budgets and surpluses. We were paying down our debt. As I mentioned in the first post, we did go into recession last year and because of that, we went into deficit. But again, not because of spending. That is a myth. The stimulus package DID NOT cause the deficit. If you look at the revenues, they dropped so much that even if the government cut back spending, it would have produced a major deficit.

[MikeAurelius]

"We should not be afraid of the government, the government should be afraid of us"

-- paraphrased from V

[For-Life]

I am more afraid of the Joe Blow average citizen.

[uncut]

The stimulus package worked well, in Canada. What is needed now is a slight prod to industries, and the general public's self-confidence. My third recession. The last thing to recover is jobs, job confidence. Everyone is skittish, and even small items of bad news makes them pause. Now, that is okay to a certain extent, since lending to and expansion by some industries was a little overdone.

[Spexvet]

Reports say that big corporations have enormous cash reserves. They should hire people.

[For-Life]

If they are publicly traded, you can check that out yourself.

[uncut]

Reports say that big corporations have enormous cash reserves. They should hire people.

Just prior the the current recession, firms were putting up trava-signs, posters, and had people walking the floors of the retail businesses, trying to recruit employees.

When the recession hit, hiring practice change took months to implement, but a lot of firms were short-staffed to begin with. Some had to shed employees, some still are, some are lifting hiring freezes, cautiously.

Some of the signage/posters, are starting to appear again in some areas of the country.

This recession's difference to others, is the speed that it started. Hopefully the recovery, world-wide will be just as swift. We do need more jobs in the U.S.A.

[FVCCHRIS]

Suspend the present system for 10 years. Completely mothball the Senate and House of Reps (fire them). Write off the outstanding U.S. debt(tell China and everyone else-ooops, we're sorry). Forgive all debt owed the U.S. Bring our military home for domestic protection. Over that 10 year period all states are on their own. No State is to be granted credit for anything. No State may spend more then it takes in in State taxes(no federal income taxes ) After about 7 years individual states may apply for induction into the "New United States". No state could be in the red, have foreign trade deficits, etc. The new United States will be run by a similar 3 tiered system but some basic principles will be completely illegal. Deficit spending of any kind will be a capital offense(outlawed) Our newly elected federal representatives will not be permitted to pass laws that apply to average citizens but not to them(outlawed). Newly agreed to federal tax collection will always be done in advance- so that we can only spend this year what we collected in taxes last year(no budgetting and spending moneys not yet collected) foreign trade and political dialog will only be done with freely elected democratic countries that protect peoples basic freedoms including speech, religion, assembly etc. I say all this because I believe this country has become a third rate nation with the respect of very few of it's own citizens, much less the civilixed world out there. Just "tweeking" some of our business practices will not save this country from what is coming. Notice all the firms switching to Chinese currency lately?? It's the beginning of the end of the U.S. as we've known it. Better liquify and diversify and gear up and clean your guns.

[Mizikal]

I have so much to say about this topic. Where to start? First we can with drawl all deployed troops and shut the bases down. We have roughly 700 bases around the world. second a cut in Government spending and getting rid of certain departments. Like the department of education and homeland security.third legalize marijuana . It is taxable and would also cut back the cost of enforcing laws.

[Spexvet]

Suspend the present system for 10 years. Completely mothball the Senate and House of Reps (fire them). Write off the outstanding U.S. debt(tell China and everyone else-ooops, we're sorry). Forgive all debt owed the U.S. Bring our military home for domestic protection. Over that 10 year period all states are on their own. No State is to be granted credit for anything. No State may spend more then it takes in in State taxes(no federal income taxes ) After about 7 years individual states may apply for induction into the "New United States". No state could be in the red, have foreign trade deficits, etc. The new United States will be run by a similar 3 tiered system but some basic principles will be completely illegal. Deficit spending of any kind will be a capital offense(outlawed) Our newly elected federal representatives will not be permitted to pass laws that apply to average citizens but not to them(outlawed). Newly agreed to federal tax collection will always be done in advance- so that we can only spend this year what we collected in taxes last year(no budgetting and spending moneys not yet collected) foreign trade and political dialog will only be done with freely elected democratic countries that protect peoples basic freedoms including speech, religion, assembly etc. I say all this because I believe this country has become a third rate nation with the respect of very few of it's own citizens, much less the civilixed world out there. Just "tweeking" some of our business practices will not save this country from what is coming. Notice all the firms switching to Chinese currency lately?? It's the beginning of the end of the U.S. as we've known it. Better liquify and diversify and gear up and clean your guns.

That's a lot of regulation to enact and enforce for someone who wants to get rid of the federal government.

Are you trying to make us the former USSR?

[For-Life]

Interesting that people are still really only focusing on spending. Cutting spending is important, but considering that the recession damaged tax revenues more than anything and that lack of those revenues is the biggest cause of the deficit, shouldn't that be dealt with?

Instead, you have politicians promising more tax cuts.

[FVCCHRIS]

That's a lot of regulation to enact and enforce for someone who wants to get rid of the federal government.

Are you trying to make us the former USSR?

Federal government(our congress) has bankrupt this country completely. It should be temporarily disbanded. Let the States set a goal of 7 years to show they can operate in the black. When the "New United States" is reconstituted deficit spending should be outlawed completely. From an economic standpoint wouldn't that make our nation well respected and stronger? The former USSR was Comunist, we are capitalists. Look at where China is today economically- loaning us money on purpose for the past 40 years because eventually we'd be in this UNSOLVABLE situation.

[Uncle Fester]

Are you trying to make us the former USSR?

Karl Marx was a prophet (pardon the pun) when he warned us that if you "Give a Capitalist enough rope he will eventually hang himself".

I find it interesting that China barely felt the recession by passing a stimulus package that was proportionally twice as large as ours. Of course they had the luxury of almost literally holding a gun to the head of the bankers and forcing them to loan it to especially small business'.

To get out of this as the recovery takes hold we will pass a national value added tax imo. Meanwhile I would like to see a tax on stock trades and if I can wish a tax on internet transactions although I see how difficult this would be.

[DragonLensmanWV]

Suspend the present system for 10 years. Completely mothball the Senate and House of Reps (fire them). Write off the outstanding U.S. debt(tell China and everyone else-ooops, we're sorry). Forgive all debt owed the U.S. Bring our military home for domestic protection. Over that 10 year period all states are on their own. No State is to be granted credit for anything. No State may spend more then it takes in in State taxes(no federal income taxes ) After about 7 years individual states may apply for induction into the "New United States". No state could be in the red, have foreign trade deficits, etc. The new United States will be run by a similar 3 tiered system but some basic principles will be completely illegal. Deficit spending of any kind will be a capital offense(outlawed) Our newly elected federal representatives will not be permitted to pass laws that apply to average citizens but not to them(outlawed). Newly agreed to federal tax collection will always be done in advance- so that we can only spend this year what we collected in taxes last year(no budgetting and spending moneys not yet collected) foreign trade and political dialog will only be done with freely elected democratic countries that protect peoples basic freedoms including speech, religion, assembly etc. I say all this because I believe this country has become a third rate nation with the respect of very few of it's own citizens, much less the civilixed world out there. Just "tweeking" some of our business practices will not save this country from what is coming. Notice all the firms switching to Chinese currency lately?? It's the beginning of the end of the U.S. as we've known it. Better liquify and diversify and gear up and clean your guns.

Why do you hate the Constitution so much?

[For-Life]

Karl Marx was a prophet (pardon the pun) when he warned us that if you "Give a Capitalist enough rope he will eventually hang himself".

I find it interesting that China barely felt the recession by passing a stimulus package that was proportionally twice as large as ours. Of course they had the luxury of almost literally holding a gun to the head of the bankers and forcing them to loan it to especially small business'.

To get out of this as the recovery takes hold we will pass a national value added tax imo. Meanwhile I would like to see a tax on stock trades and if I can wish a tax on internet transactions although I see how difficult this would be.

Yep, it hurts, but it works. Short term pain for long term gain.

[uncut]

Short term tax........THAT is what personal income taxes were called when implemented in Canada! It is rare that a tax is ever given up once a goverment implements it.

With all the civic, municipal, provincial, and federal (excise, environmental) taxes the taxpayer is "taxed" to the max. Our good old GST has morphed into HST in some provinces swallowing up an ever increasing number of items and services. A whale of a tax that was only meant to replace the manufacturing tax.

[BobK]

Mark your calendar, November 2, 2010. TAKE OUT THE TRASH.