If the United States were a company, what financial shape would it be in?

[Doc Savage Fan]

Don't forget ~$100 Trillion in future obligations.

Such a minor detail...all we need to do is to get the rich to pay their "fair share" and our problems will go away....all the really smart people know this.

 

[wuliheron]

Such a minor detail...all we need to do is to get the rich to pay their "fair share" and our problems will go away....all the really smart people know this.

We don't have access to Swiss Banks.

 

[FDF12389]

If the top 50% are paying for all the services for the bottom 50% then you have enough income distribution. In the history of the world nobody has ever taxed us out of a recession.

This

 

[sandorski]

If the top 50% are paying for all the services for the bottom 50% then you have enough income distribution. In the history of the world nobody has ever taxed us out of a recession.

If they were, you'd be correct, but they're not.

 

[rudder]

If the US Gov't were a company, it would have declared bankruptcy a long time ago, and the CEO's and accountants would be hauled off to jail.

Correction, It would have received a bailout and the CEO's would have found positions within the government.

 

[silverpig]

I never mentioned the amount of taxes taken out of their paycheck.
They do pay more % in taxes out of their pay check than people with less income though of course.

I don't care if they don't "feel" it as much. Thats irrelevant.
They are paying plenty of income taxes.
If the top 1% did not exist 1/3 of our income taxes would be gone.
So yes, I'd say they pay their "fair share"

You wish it would stop being repeated because it doesn't fit with your "the rich pay no taxes" so we need to raise taxes agenda.

Without the bottom 50%, the top 1% would have no way to make money.

Who do you think gives the Waltons all their money?

 

[PeshakJang]

When a company has a $3.69T annual budget and a 14.3T debt (~100% of GDP) that's skyrocketing...it's in trouble. It's in really deep shit when its led by officers who can't find a way to cut even a measly $60B.

And it's doomed when half the shareholders are oblivious idiots who ridicule those who want to do something about it.

Let's not forget the fact that not one person that is in charge of this company has EVER had any experience beyond academia in terms of how a business operates.

 

[PeshakJang]

The assets of the USA aren't limited to real estate, although I'm sure "real estate owned by the USA is worth tens if not hundreds of trillions of dollars.

In 2005, the federal government owned about 55,000,000 acres of land, and had buildings and assets worth approximately $1.26 trillion replacement value.

Keep in mind that most federal land is in the form of national parks and military reservations, none of which could reasonably be sold. Add in the fact that the government prefers to lease property in perpetuity, and you are looking at nowhere near the 10s to 100s of trillions of dollars that you seem to think they have.

Aside from that, you would be talking about the federal gov't liquidating itself to pay it's bills. This is not the hallmark of a well-run business.

Debt manageable ? Measure of that is what we have to pay to service it. have you checked the interest rate we pay ? Not bad.

Even 1% of a fucking unimaginable sum of money is an unimaginable sum of money to be paying every year. We pay about $400,000,000,000 per year in interest, and that is expected to almost double in the near future.

Having debt is fine, if you are paying it off. When was the last time we paid any principal? We take out a loan every year to pay off just the interest on the loans we already took out. That is not managing debt.

Cutting spending isn't more popular in reality, it's just easy to exploit people's greed by talking about cutting everbody else's spending.

What? It's not easier to exploit peoples' greed by talking about raising everybody elses' taxes? Might want to rethink your statement.

Cut medical care for illegal aliens ? hell ya. Close the redundant military base that buys supplies from my hardware store ? Hell no !

Raise the taxes on the rich fuckers who don't deserve any money and never worked a day in their life? HELL YEAH! Try to collect $5 in total taxes from the 50% of the population that contributes ZERO to the federal income tax pool, instead of sending them checks every money/year? FUUUUCCCKKK NO! They're giddamn 'merican middle class!

You reveal your bias by your characterization of tax increases. You're just part of the reason the deficit is so high, you want to cut stuff you don't care about and that's it. no pain for you, no taxes to pay for wars, just cut the other guy.

No, I want cuts everywhere. The fact that I'm not fooled into believing the bullshit about solving all of our problems with tax increases that are guaranteed to be spent faster than they are collected is something you have failed to consider.

Give the government less money, they'll spend more to try to stimulate.
Give the government more money, they'll spend more because they have it.

You solve the problem of outflows not by addressing inflows, but by addressing outflows. Then you can think about what you need to do going forward.

That doesn't work and we have to stop supporting politicians who feed us lies that we can fix the deficit without any pain.

That's why the Dems lost so badly in the last election. People were tired of that bullshit they've been spouting. If they were at all serious about anything with regards to the budget, they would have done their single most important, constitutionally enumerated duties of passing a budget, instead of fucking around in hopes of ramming through massive increases while blaming it on the Republicans.

Even at that, it's not anywhere near as serious as the current politically motivated hysteria makes it out to be.

So let's just keep expanding spending, right? If $14 trillion dollars is not that serious, why don't we just double that?

 

[Tom]

Liquidating ? Who said anything about liquidating ?

Not interested in a pointless debate with someone who wants to solve the deficit on everybodies' back but his own..

unless you have some tangible cuts that will actually hurt you ?

 

[sactoking]

If the US were a company that I regulated it would be declared insolvent, put into receivership, and forced run-off.

 

[sandorski]

If I were the US, Florida would point towards the Straight of Gibraltar.

 

[Engineer]

If the US Gov't were a company, it would have declared bankruptcy a long time ago, and the CEO's and accountants would be given golden parachutes

Ah....this.

 

[PeshakJang]

Liquidating ? Who said anything about liquidating ?

Not interested in a pointless debate with someone who wants to solve the deficit on everybodies' back but his own..

unless you have some tangible cuts that will actually hurt you ?

DoD needs cutting, and that affects me. I've already seen cutbacks.

Problem is, the cutting is always at a high level, so the real spending leaks never get fixed, just like every other government agency. There are an unbelievable number of shit bags in every service, that somehow managed to promote themselves into job security, though they don't contribute two shits to anything worthwhile. Problem is, you can't just fire somebody that deserves firing. A lot like a union, except we don't get to bargain for our pay.

I try to be as frugal as I can at my level, but it's hard to visualize much effect when higher agencies are still spending money like it's going out of style.

That's how it is everywhere in government. Every agency will spend every dollar they are given, regardless of necessity. Then when you try to take it away, they claim the cuts will be to crucial areas. DoD is probably pretty damn efficient by nature of being militarized, but the sheer size lends itself to tremendous waste.

There, a conservative said that the DoD needs cutting... cutting that will impact me directly. What are you bringing to the table?

 

[boomerang]

This thread reflects the battle going on in Washington right now pretty much exactly. Here we have the views of the right and the views of the left with no leader.

Same in DC.

A high stakes game of chicken is going on in DC. The left wants no cuts, the old guard right wants token cuts, the new TP right wants to cut a whole lot and Barry, he's hiding under his desk hoping for a way to back the right into a corner and get a leg up on them. The good of the country? Oh, yeah he's a...workin' on that.

http://www.thepiratescove.us/2011/03/15/the-politico-wonders-wheres-waldo-er-obama/

The country is fucked and we're fucked right along with it. Nothing in DC is going to change without a catalyst. We're the catalyst, but American Idol is on and there's still some snow in the yard - kinda chilly.

 

[comptr6]

We'd be in perfect shape. The US is the best country in the world, with the best people, the best healthcare system, the best colleges and the best military. The only thing holding us back is the government! Government by nature is corrupt, inefficient and power hungry. If we privatized our government everything would improve.

 

[LegendKiller]

We'd be in perfect shape. The US is the best country in the world, with the best people, the best healthcare system, the best colleges and the best military. The only thing holding us back is the government! Government by nature is corrupt, inefficient and power hungry. If we privatized our government everything would improve.

LOL. I think we're fine but this is utterly ridiculous.

The "unfunded future liabilities" crap is...crap. Plowing that into current debt is a moronic thing to do, especially since it doesn't consider future revenue that is generated.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

If the U.S. were a company, we'd be a wholly owned subsidiary of China. Oh wait...

 

[ultimatebob]

If the US was a business, the board would bring in a "hatchet man" CEO to cut operating expenditures by 40%. They wouldn't be shy about it, either... They would probably raise the retirement age to 75, cut the military budget in half, and get rid of most federal welfare programs. They would probably also layoff, outsource, or subcontract a few hundred thousand government jobs.

 

[PeshakJang]

We'd be in perfect shape. The US is the best country in the world, with the best people, the best healthcare system, the best colleges and the best military. The only thing holding us back is the government! Government by nature is corrupt, inefficient and power hungry. If we privatized our government everything would improve.

Honestly, your little shtick is getting old. What is your alt-Lib account?

 

[JTsyo]

If the US were a company that I regulated it would be declared insolvent, put into receivership, and forced run-off.

Too big to fail.

If the U.S. were a company, we'd be a wholly owned subsidiary of China. Oh wait...

Hostile takeover?