Brits cut the budget 25%

[Siddhartha]

Sounds like the UK is hoping that the US and China will carry the world out of the recession.

 

[gingermeggs]

The economy is money being spent. If everybody stops spending the economy will collapse. It is very simple. People who are confident and with incomes spend to improve their lives. People in a state of fear don't spend. Fear is the mind killer. It is also the economy killer.

All you do is worry because you want to get ahead. Today is exactly like the day Jesus realized He was God. It is just such a perfect day. You allow yourself to be driven from pillar to post, to be blown like a leaf in the wind, in a world that is absolutely perfect. One minute you save, the next you invest, while your emotions react mechanically. Surrender totally to the now. In the now, everything that happens happens by the Will of God.

And trust in God but tie your camel first. And the roses smell just as good today, I would imagine, as they did 2000 years ago.

Yes the Sky Daddy!
He'll make everything good!
Camels with roses! Sound's like the Wonka factory!
You're on the black tar smack mate?

 

[Darwin333]

I wonder how bad the "conservatives" posting here would squeal if we had a 20% tax increase. Extremely loudly, I expect.

Lol, not as loudly as the libs squealing from the spending cuts I would bet. Maybe I am wrong and the cons will be squealing the loudest but it would be fun to watch them both be pissed off while going back and forth.

Personally, I think that is exactly what needs to happen (taxes need to go up and spending needs to come way down). Unfortunately it will not happen until we are forced and it will probably be to late or a hellofalot more painful. Politicians want to get reelected and thats not how you get elected in the US.

 

[Craig234]

It astounds me sometimes that people think that the government creates wealth.

I love the child-like ignorant ideology.

Why, the government has nothing to do with creating wealth. It running the currency, it providing banking regulations, it providing rights for workers, it defending business from foreign invasion or domestic theft and terrorism, it increasing consumer confidence with product safety regulation, it building roads - why, it's all waste and does nothing but cost money, not increasing wealth for business to function one bit.

And if you support any of these things, then our idiot right will say that you are to the left of Lenin and want the government to own all property in totalitarianism.

The system where the government makes the system work better for private interests to create wealth, is too complicated for these people.

 

[highland145]

That's why this 2011 'drawdown' is such a big deal --- slash the overall annual expense and you reduce the annual deficit 25-30%.

It's a start


--

Thanks for the #'s. I'm not convinced there won't be more expenditures that would eliminate the drawdown.

Like I said in the op, looks like we'll find out whose ideas are correct. The Brits/Germans cut and slash or the U.S.s borrow/spend, assuming everyone sticks to their guns. Both can't be right and that's a little scary. One of us is going to be on the ramen nooodles diet.

 

[highland145]

Why, the government has nothing to do with creating wealth. It running the currency, it providing banking regulations, it providing rights for workers, it defending business from foreign invasion or domestic theft and terrorism, it increasing consumer confidence with product safety regulation, it building roads - why, it's all waste and does nothing but cost money, not increasing wealth for business to function one bit.

Protecting consumers/companies/patents isn't the same as creating wealth. We pay tax, in part, so that the govt protects us so that we are more profitable/stable/able to make the country stronger, as a whole. Symbiotic relationship. As far as I am concerned, it's part of the cost of doing business.

 

[Craig234]

Protecting consumers/companies/patents isn't the same as creating wealth. We pay tax, in part, so that the govt protects us so that we are more profitable/stable/able to make the country stronger, as a whole. Symbiotic relationship. As far as I am concerned, it's part of the cost of doing business.

But it does also create some wealth, in that consumers who feel products are safer are going to buy more of them.

This is why industries generally view having some 'authority' that reassures the customer to buy essential to their business.

They have conflicting interests - they want all the reassurances of having the authority, but they want the authority to cost them as little as possible.

 

[highland145]

But it does also create some wealth, in that consumers who feel products are safer are going to buy more of them.

This is why industries generally view having some 'authority' that reassures the customer to buy essential to their business.

They have conflicting interests - they want all the reassurances of having the authority, but they want the authority to cost them as little as possible.

Think it's both sides of the same coin in a consumer driven economy. More sales=more wealth=more taxes. Everyone's happy, to some degree.

Not sure it's "conflicting". We all would like more with less $$. But I don't mind paying top $$ as long as I'm getting quality goods. Not happy if it's the other way around. Same for taxes. Pay what's fair and then some as long as the benefits are equal.