I just found this on CNN Money, makes you realize how fucking fucked up the U.S. government really is when it comes to money.
The easy way to look at the U.S. budget
- Thread starter ly2 from WF
- Start date
The thing that aggravates me the most is the majority of changes necessary would be wholeheartedly accepted (and loved) by the majority of the US population, and wouldn't affect the day-to-day lives of many in the slightest. You could probably strip away 30% of the US government tomorrow, and other than those TSA workers and others who would then be looking for a job, nobody would notice a single difference in their life.
Corporations have such an iron grip around the balls of the US though, it's tough to see that ever happening. One of the side-effects of the free market, I guess.
funny part is they think raising taxes is the miracle worker to end all this. so Mr. Jones gets a pay raise, and his income goes up to $25,000 - he's still spending $38,200.
It's now referred to as "raising revenue", didn't you get the liberal memo? I'll make sure someone re-sends it to you.
Just remember, "tax" is a bad word...people know what tax means.
As long as the US doesn't manage to employ most of its population in industries that don't compete directly with those in Asian markets, there's no solution at all, even if they keep cutting spending. But how do you employ millions of people that need to have high levels of expertise in certain areas....I have no idea. And how do you balance exports vs imports, no idea either......This debt will never be paid and the only reason that the US economy doesn't crash is because the rest of the world knows that if they stop buying debt and change the world currency, they will sure fall as well.
China is on shaky footing. Municipal and regional debt, combined with inflation are going to be a recipe for disaster.
Makes you wonder if the 40 hour workweek at the same place is becoming obsolete, or if a new style simply needs to emerge to supplement things.
An idea would be, why couldn't someone have multiple jobs spread throughout the week? Instead of being specialized to one task, which isn't how things are anyways. Most people are complaining about the fact that they have responsibilities in areas of their work that they weren't hired to be responsible for. (If minimum wage weren't there, they could hire people to take on these tasks instead of overwhelming one employee to handle all of it)
Kind of like freelancing, but more steady. If you don't like it, you find a job that needs someone full time, 40 hours/week. If you don't mind it or prefer it, you make your schedule accommodate your other jobs.
Cut spending , make the US competitive.
We have so many laws that literally force our companies to China because we literally don't want them here.
Just a few examples :
Car plant in Indiana can not afford 5,000 union workers @ $35 a hour anymore. They make a offer to the workers & union - reduce your pay to $18 a hour (Area median is $12/hr) + benefits and we will stay here, if not we move to mexico. Union voted to move all 5,000 jobs to mexico instead of taking a pay cut.
In Texas a large company was looking to set up a major coal power plant to supply the state with cheap power for emergencies. The DOE & EPA refused to give them a permit because it put 'Too many contaminants in the air'. That company moved the plant location by 10 miles to Mexico and built the plant. That plant now operates with absolutely no pollution controls and employes 500 or so workers all making relatively great wages for Mexico. Had it of been built in the US it would have employed 200 workers at very high wages with significantly more pollution controls had the DOE of allowed any new coal permits to be granted.
Intel also has been looking at building a new chip plant in Oregon. From my understanding they're building one facility in Oregon and one in Vietnam. The one in the US will cost them over 2 billion more dollars than the one in Vietnam. More than 1.2 billion of that difference is because of government regulations, permitting costs and 'studies' they have to pay for to determine if the plant is pushing out native wildlife.
We as a country are our own worst enemy. We COULD be the world leader in nearly every aspect but instead we're wanting to make people have warm fuzzies whenever they think about things.
We have so many laws that literally force our companies to China because we literally don't want them here.
Just a few examples :
Car plant in Indiana can not afford 5,000 union workers @ $35 a hour anymore. They make a offer to the workers & union - reduce your pay to $18 a hour (Area median is $12/hr) + benefits and we will stay here, if not we move to mexico. Union voted to move all 5,000 jobs to mexico instead of taking a pay cut.
In Texas a large company was looking to set up a major coal power plant to supply the state with cheap power for emergencies. The DOE & EPA refused to give them a permit because it put 'Too many contaminants in the air'. That company moved the plant location by 10 miles to Mexico and built the plant. That plant now operates with absolutely no pollution controls and employes 500 or so workers all making relatively great wages for Mexico. Had it of been built in the US it would have employed 200 workers at very high wages with significantly more pollution controls had the DOE of allowed any new coal permits to be granted.
Intel also has been looking at building a new chip plant in Oregon. From my understanding they're building one facility in Oregon and one in Vietnam. The one in the US will cost them over 2 billion more dollars than the one in Vietnam. More than 1.2 billion of that difference is because of government regulations, permitting costs and 'studies' they have to pay for to determine if the plant is pushing out native wildlife.
We as a country are our own worst enemy. We COULD be the world leader in nearly every aspect but instead we're wanting to make people have warm fuzzies whenever they think about things.
Really good examples. However, there's no rational mechanism to make unions or people understand that by getting paid less, they'd be able to keep that job and besides the benefit the whole economy, things don't work that way. The gov could lower taxes and improve infrastructure though.
Anyone with military or government employee experience already knows this but the amount of government wasteful spending is ridiculous. A couple examples I've seen with my own eyes:
- Burying approximately 20k worth of equipment because the guy in charge didn't feel like carrying it out 10 miles and no heli was available to pick it up.
- Leaving 15k+ worth of shit to burn up because no heli was available.
- Turning rotors on a contracted machine so that the entire crew could get hazard pay for the day (probably a $1500+ total expense) which also made the contractor $2880. This was a daily experience for 3+ weeks and that doesn't even factor in the $175k it cost the taxpayers to fly 6 people in a Bell-212 from Washington State to Jacksonville, FL...and then sit there the entire time, except when we needed to "turn the rotors to keep them from seizing up"..not to mention the $400 a night 5 star hotel rooms they put us up in, twin king sized beds in each room...only it was one person per room.
- Coming up with an extra $50k-$150k in budgetary expenses every year at fiscal year end because "if we don't spend it this year, we won't get it next year", which is the mindset of 99% of bureaucratic types that I worked with.
I could go on but I think I need to go throw up now. And this shit was with a Republican in the oval office, I can't imagine how bad the landscape is now.
- Burying approximately 20k worth of equipment because the guy in charge didn't feel like carrying it out 10 miles and no heli was available to pick it up.
- Leaving 15k+ worth of shit to burn up because no heli was available.
- Turning rotors on a contracted machine so that the entire crew could get hazard pay for the day (probably a $1500+ total expense) which also made the contractor $2880. This was a daily experience for 3+ weeks and that doesn't even factor in the $175k it cost the taxpayers to fly 6 people in a Bell-212 from Washington State to Jacksonville, FL...and then sit there the entire time, except when we needed to "turn the rotors to keep them from seizing up"..not to mention the $400 a night 5 star hotel rooms they put us up in, twin king sized beds in each room...only it was one person per room.
- Coming up with an extra $50k-$150k in budgetary expenses every year at fiscal year end because "if we don't spend it this year, we won't get it next year", which is the mindset of 99% of bureaucratic types that I worked with.
I could go on but I think I need to go throw up now. And this shit was with a Republican in the oval office, I can't imagine how bad the landscape is now.
First off I agree that our government spends money like a bunch of tards and something seriously has to be done.
However family debt is usually just personal crap that they buy. The government debt creates jobs, goods and services, products for export, etc...
However family debt is usually just personal crap that they buy. The government debt creates jobs, goods and services, products for export, etc...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG4jhlPLVVs]The Broken Window Fallacy (no accents) - YouTube[/ame]
In this economy chances are Mr.Jones hasn't gotten a pay raise from his employer in years. Dems are ignoring our stagflation problem.
Government creates over paid jobs that are most of the time useless. Most of the services provided by the government are a total cluster and in the red.
You lower taxes, drop regulation and allow business to do business.
Pretty fucking simple. Stop the government rape.
Why WOULD anyone do business in the US? You can go to another country like china where you don't have to worry about getting fined and sued to death. Or to any other random country.
If you are in the US running a major corporation you can guarantee you will be audited, sued, fined and most importantly taxed. Even more so you have employee's who will you call you "evil" corporation and have no respect for you.