How to explain the American budget crisis in 5 sentences

[wuliheron]

How to explain the American budget crisis in 5 sentences

The American economy started going downhill in the 70s and, instead of addressing the hard problems, people decided to deal with the symptoms. They got second jobs and took out credit cards and real estate loans which everyone agreed could only go up in value. Then they elected people who supported their desires to work their asses off and buy everything on credit. Wall Street caught on and decided they could make the most money off crooked real estate deals and high credit card rates. When they got caught the bubble burst and the American people were left with fewer jobs then before, overwhelming debt, houses that weren't worth anything, and a government that couldn't agree on how to take a shit much less balance the budget because they were never elected for their problem solving skills.

 

[ericlp]

couldn't THIS family quit the pathetic 21K a year job, and milk the government for the rest like all the rest of them?

The system doesn't want you to even TRY to make ends meet. Just stay at home and wait for the gov assistant checks to come rolling in! Doesn't say how many members are in the family. But I would suspect due to the small amount of money they have coming in they could get on gov assistance and still retain the job.

 

[CycloWizard]

He can't. There is no scenario whereby inflating our way out of debt works without totally wrecking our economy, which is why he has to stick to generalities such as "Debt isn't bad."*

*Except of course when you have a Republican Congress and President.

I know, but I thought I'd give him one last chance to explain himself. His failure to do so is more validation than I could ever receive by expounding my opposition to his position.

 

[Fern]

Uhmm, you don't either have to mass inflate to pay off all debt or do nothing. You can do anything and everything in between, which is where the flexibility comes from.

I think you are optimistic in your belief of "flexibility".

I think it's substantially dimished, and continues to dimishes further as we linger in a slow economy and continue borrowing.

Fern

 

[HendrixFan]

As for 'getting along fine for centuries', the average life expectancy of an American citizen in 1776 was about 33 years. Hell, life expectancy in 1930 was almost 20 years less than it is now. Funny, I don't view that as 'just fine'. If only living to 59 is 'just fine' by you, then yes we don't need to reorganize our health care.

Most of those life expectancy numbers are terribly skewed by the fact that so many people died during childbirth or in very early childhood. Their young age terribly skewed the averages, something a mean age would not be as sensitive to.

 

[CycloWizard]

Most of those life expectancy numbers are terribly skewed by the fact that so many people died during childbirth or in very early childhood. Their young age terribly skewed the averages, something a mean age would not be as sensitive to.

Mean age isn't a meaningful metric in this context because it is depends on birth rates and lots of other factors that are meaningless in an epidemiological framework for studying the effectiveness of healthcare delivery.

 

[Throckmorton]

Most of those life expectancy numbers are terribly skewed by the fact that so many people died during childbirth or in very early childhood. Their young age terribly skewed the averages, something a mean age would not be as sensitive to.

My vegetation ecology professor liked to tell us what Mark Twain said about averages... You put one hand in ice cold water, the other hand in boiling water, and on the average you're comfortable.

 

[PokerGuy]

You put one hand in ice cold water, the other hand in boiling water, and on the average you're comfortable.

LOL, I hadn't heard that before, but that's a good analogy.

 

[shortylickens]

In 5 sentences...

(1.) The U.S. government allowed American manufacturing jobs to be sent overseas in mass, resulting in a large trade deficit and unemployed, underemployed, and impoverished Americans.

(2.) The U.S. government also imported hundreds of thousands of foreigners on H-1B and L-1 visas, displacing Americans from knowledge-based jobs.

(3.) The U.S. government allowed millions of poor immigrants to enter the country, displacing lower class Americans from their jobs while also putting downward pressure on their wages.

(4.) Consequently, and consistent with a 10% decrease in the number of middle class jobs, the masses of unemployed, underemployed, and now lesser-paid Americans no longer paid enough money in tax revenue while the need for social services (unemployment payments, welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.) increased, and tens of millions of impoverished immigrants imposed net costs on the government for things like education for their children and health care.

(5.) In the meantime the nation maintained an antiquated and expensive health care system that proved to be a huge burden on businesses and the economy but was good for wealthy insurance company executives and shareholders.

There we go, 5 sentences that basically sum up how we got into this mess.

I definitely agree with 1,2 and 3.
4 and 5 are a little more open to personal interpretation.
Also funny how not just number 5, but also the first 3 helped the upper 1% maintain their awesome profit margins.

 

[DominionSeraph]

LOL, yet more nothing with no substantiation.

How is substantiation better than no substantiation?

pwned.

 

[PokerGuy]

How is substantiation better than no substantiation?

pwned.

I know comprehension and thinking aren't your strong suits, it's OK.

 

[KlokWyze]

The economic system is designed to fail. Even if all this debt is controlled, we will be right back to square one, because the legislation, government bodies, etc. are all broken. Where is the accountability for massive failure? It's on you and me, because we aren't represented in the government at all.

 

[Matt1970]

My vegetation ecology professor liked to tell us what Mark Twain said about averages... You put one hand in ice cold water, the other hand in boiling water, and on the average you're comfortable.

I like that.

 

[piasabird]

Print Money.
Print Money.
Print Money.
Print Money.
Why does everything cost more?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I definitely agree with 1,2 and 3.
4 and 5 are a little more open to personal interpretation.
Also funny how not just number 5, but also the first 3 helped the upper 1% maintain their awesome profit margins.

Thanks Shortylickens. Regarding point #4, the way I see it, if people are unemployed and underemployed or working poor, they just can't pay much in taxes but will need government services. I think that's a core component of states' and the federal government's problem; the amount of revenue coming in decreases while the need for government welfare services increases.

What's sad is that our politicians are refusing to acknowledge or address that. They're more concerned with cutting the budget deficit than they are with addressing the real problem--decreased tax revenue and increased social welfare expenditures.

 

[DominionSeraph]

I know comprehension and thinking aren't your strong suits, it's OK.

Consistency is not yours.

You wrote:

First, there's no purely objective or scientific way to measure how "good" overall a system is.

Yet to demand substantiation because it is "better" than no substantiation also falls under this. Vale is subjective.

But you'll probably be struggling with those two sentences for the next ten years. *sigh*
(and that's being generous. I doubt you think at all)