Remember when we passed the bailout everyone thought it was a good idea to keep people in their homes. Banks made bad loans to people who couldn't pay them back, but we could renegotiate those loans into something people can afford. If people can pay something toward their mortgage the loans are not as worthless or "toxic" as they called them in the news. It's a bottom up approach, don't just buy garbage loans from the banks, make it so borrowers can pay the banks back and keep those mortgages from defaulting.
Well, that didn't happen and in October 279,561 people lost their homes. That is a failure of government. We never set up a system to deal with foreclosures. It's not like this was sudden, it takes a few months to kick somebody out of their home. I'm sure many many of those people were trying to play by the rules, and could have renegotiated their loans and paid them off. That's a 5% increase from the previous month and a 25% increase from October 2007. Every month that we let 'loans' become 'bad debt' we are just draining money out of the economy and creating more uncertainty.
Party First or Country First
The Bush years were ruled by party politics. After Every crisis, the first question they asked was "How can we use this to make the Republicans look good and the Democrats look bad". And there was a dogmatic reliance on conservative ideals (like private mercenaries in Iraq who get paid more than our military)
I hope moving forward we can build consensus instead of battling over turf wars. Because that's why people disapprove of congress more than bush, because there's always some ideological stalemate, and some party line rivalry. And nothing got done. We need solutions, this is not a game. Let's agree where we can.
The Economy Grows Like Crazy Amid High Taxes
Not that taxes should be raised in an economic depression, but the idea that lower taxes makes the economy better is false.
"High taxes create an incentive to reinvest profits into the business for long-term growth. With high taxes, the only way to retain the bulk of the wealth created by a business is by reinvesting it in the business -- in plants, equipment, staff, research and development, new products and all the rest."
It's a simple argument, based on historical trends in the US. It makes perfect logical sense. The 'trickle-down' idea of cutting taxes and giving benefits to the rich just encourages saving and stockpiling cash, while higher tax rates encourages reinvestment in the business and writing it off on your taxes.
Drew said something along these lines in a previous post, and I see the same situation since I'm self-employed.
I just don't think taxes as the root of all evil, especially when healthcare is a bigger problem and expense for me and my business. And I do think it's patriotic to pitch in and help the country as a whole.
Technically, we've outsourced some of defense stuff since the inception of ROTC programs at colleges. But you're right, mercenaries are not as effective as government-controlled forces, as Machiavelli himself stated 500 years ago.
"I say, therefore, that the arms with which a prince defends his state
are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed.
Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds
his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe;
for they are disunited, ambitious, and without discipline, unfaithful,
valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the
fear of G-d nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so
long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war
by the enemy. The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for
keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient
to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be
your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take
themselves off or run from the foe; "--Nicolo Machiavelli, the Prince.
Yea, the economy is not simple, but the dominant logic has been "Taxes Hurt Economy" that realy isn't true, in fact the evidence supports the opposite. But you're right, there's more to the economy than taxes. I think the best we can do now to get this puppy going again is to spend billions rebuilding roads, bridges, cities, and other public works projects that will pay people a decent wage, and keep unemployment down.
And I agree that we need serious law enforcement and intelligence gathering to deal with international crime and terrorism. I just thought it was a little weird that we are outsourcing this too. That's what the military academys are for. It worries me to have too many people just learning this crap online and taking the government out of the equation.
I'm also glad that Obama seems to be surrounding himself with diverse points of view. He realizes that people may disagree, but essentially we all want to do what's best for the country.
I think and Hope that Obama will put country 1st. He seems to know that fixing the country is a bipartisan thing. It kinda sounds like he might have at least one republican in his cabanet I think it is important to have people who don't have the same view as you, that way you get to hear more then just one side of the story or one way of thinking and it can make your decisions better.
If we are to fight terrorism with police officers, as well as lawyers wearing Armani, we need more people to get into intelligence and counterterrorism. Our country needs people to study this stuff. Dudley Do-right isn't going to do the job. If we aren't allowed to kill terrorists, and if we aren't supposed to train intelligence officers, where does that leave us? With our fuckin pants down, that's where.
I'm with you on agreeing where we can, I think you and I do a good job of that. I don't, however, think that high taxes = growing economy any more than low taxes = growing economy. It is an incredibly complicated argument of course, which can't be broken down simplistically. I have a thousand problems with the capital gains tax as it stands.
I just found this crap, what is this, the college of the war machine? :::link::: it goes along with my post about privatizing the military. What happened to "I won't study war no more?" This on the other hand is an online college that is only for the study of war.