billvon 2,426
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QuoteObviously a number of these categories overlap. But what is the biggest problem facing America?
Corporatist governments acting on behalf of powerful economic interests (profitable industries, professsional organizations, corporations, unions) instead of the people.
That has a lot to do with our first-past-the-post voting systems which result in two parties that are about the same and makes replacement of the status quo an all-or-nothing affair that's rarely possible.
Quote
Personally I believe it is Obesity since an unhealthy population effects a lot of the other categories. But that is just me.
Fat people aren't acting to make negative real interest rates which punish savers and retired people living on fixed incomes, they're not closing school libraries instead of letting parent volunteers staff them to extort more money from the tax payers, they're not quadrupling the incarceration rate and prison count since their union came to power, they're not acting to make real-estate more expensive, they're not using "health care" as an excuse to funnel trillions of dollars (Medicare Part D and Obamacare) to private industry instead of working to reduce costs, they're not using "defense" (once you're spending 4X the second place country, 11X the next NATO country, and 30X the nearest country with the same land mass and border length it's not about defense) to funnel trillions of tax dollars to private companies...
winsor 187
Quote> I am sure that you could apply the Magic of Arithmetic to evaluate our current plight.
>Do the numbers - we're scrod.
We are indeed between a rock and a hard place.
However, we have been this "screwed" before and recovered. Unemployment was far higher during the Great Depression - and we recovered. Our debt (as a ratio of GDP) was far higher after WWII - and we recovered.
That is not to say that it is a slam dunk we will recover this time. But it is certainly possible, and the primary thing we have to do is pay off our debt as the economy improves - fast enough that it actually reduces our debt with time, slow enough that we do not destroy the economy doing so.
>It has taken decades to bugger things up as badly as they are now, and there are NO,
>read ZERO, quick fixes.
That is absolutely true. We go through cycles of
gee things suck there's no way we will ever recover
it will take decades to recover
hmm, things are getting a bit better, I guess it's working but we're not out of the woods
it's working GREAT and we will never have another problem like that
things are working so well we don't even have to be careful any more
gee things suck there's no way we will ever recover
We are now back at the beginning of that cycle.
Where we have a failure to communicate seems to be that you are taking a different analysis of the nonlinear system that is our economy. It is always tempting to take a small-signal approach, where perturbation analysis allows you to linearize around a point. The analysis that seems indicated by my tally is one where things get irreversibly nonlinear.
In the '30s the US had a bit more than a third the population that it does now, the easy-to-access petroleum was still apparently endless, the rail system was an order of magnitude more extensive than it is now (think "Roger Rabbit"), and we had the capacity to export excesses of raw materials and manufactured goods.
Things are a tad different now.
Our way of life is dependent upon the import of fuel that we have not been able to afford for decades, and for which we owe trillions already. To eat we need to power the tractors, combines, trailers and food processing facilities; to get to work we need automobiles and buses - the high-speed electric rail that used to interconnect our urban areas is long gone but for a very few systems.
I sincerely wish we we were only as badly screwed as we have been in the past. We are, however, beyond a tipping point that has not been experienced here to date.
Analogs to our current plight do, however, exist in history. In every case - and I do mean 100% - the society so burdened imploded.
I do wish I could think of some reason to think otherwise, but I think we are in a plight on a par with the Titanic; the good news being that that particular "unsinkable" (too big to fail...) ship went under with a fair number of her passengers surviving, if a bit worse for wear.
Admittedly, the band has not yet struck up "Closer My God to Thee," but the ultimate outcome is inevitable. Don't sweat rearranging the deck chairs.
BSBD,
Winsor
QuoteAt this minute, America's biggest problem is that Notre Dame is in the BCS championship game with Alabama when the Aggies beat Alabama, Notre Dame is a joke and Johnny Football just won the statue.
Tomorrow the problem will be more important, but this is just this moment.
The only college cult more annoying than Notre Dame are the Aggies.
My wife is hotter than your wife.
quade 3
QuoteQuoteAt this minute, America's biggest problem is that Notre Dame is in the BCS championship game with Alabama when the Aggies beat Alabama, Notre Dame is a joke and Johnny Football just won the statue.
Tomorrow the problem will be more important, but this is just this moment.
The only college cult more annoying than Notre Dame are the Aggies.
But none is as dangerous as "Skull and Bones."
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
The World's Most Boring Skydiver
QuoteQuoteAt this minute, America's biggest problem is that Notre Dame is in the BCS championship game with Alabama when the Aggies beat Alabama, Notre Dame is a joke and Johnny Football just won the statue.
Tomorrow the problem will be more important, but this is just this moment.
The only college cult more annoying than Notre Dame are the Aggies.
Care to swing by the house? I've got a fresh batch of maroon Kool-Aid...
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."
rushmc 18
QuoteUnemployment was far higher during the Great Depression.....
Might be numerically true but things are different now IMO
The difference is in the honesty
Look at the unemployment numbers for the last month
Down .2%
Does not sound like much but that is a huge change
Economists say that would equal adding 600,000 jobs for the month
Well, the gov says we added something like 146,000? ( don’t remember the exact number) So how can the rate change .2% when it would take 600,000 new jobs to do that?
Easy
Nearly 500,000 dropped out of the group looking for jobs and are now, no longer counted
So we are now doing better? (not aimed at you Bill)
I don’t think so
This mathematical magic needs to stop and the people need the truth
Only then will the voters do the right thing
"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln
wmw999 2,146
I think it's the desire demand for instant results & gratification. From
payday loan places
the biggest house you can imagine
the food you want right now
company results being evaluated by whether they project that they'll hit the earnings that were projected for them by someone else
being able to get the money now for the structured settlement
etc. etc.
Wendy P.
etc. etc.
Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)
DanG 1
Your 600,000 number assumes that all 300 million Americans are in the job market. Kids, old people, retired people, disabled people, and students aren't looking for jobs.
I understand your point that the unemployment numbers may not be the best representation of the real job picture, but you're throwing around numbers that are equally misleading.
- Dan G
I understand your point that the unemployment numbers may not be the best representation of the real job picture, but you're throwing around numbers that are equally misleading.
- Dan G
rushmc 18
QuoteYour 600,000 number assumes that all 300 million Americans are in the job market. Kids, old people, retired people, disabled people, and students aren't looking for jobs.
I understand your point that the unemployment numbers may not be the best representation of the real job picture, but you're throwing around numbers that are equally misleading.
These numbers are from what ever the labor statistics dept the gov uses
And no, these numbers are not misleading
The way the admin and the media reports these numbers is what is misleading
"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln
jgoose71 0
I had to vote "Other" I think a lot of the problems we face could be fixed if congress sat down and hammered out a fair tax code.
A lot of "Picking of the winners and losers," unfair tax advantages to preferred donors, er, I mean, groups, bought tax advantages and in general unfair weights placed on small business while corporations like GE with $14billion profits pay nothing comes from our hosed up tax system.
I just think it would be a good place to start to fix unemployment and the economy.
A lot of "Picking of the winners and losers," unfair tax advantages to preferred donors, er, I mean, groups, bought tax advantages and in general unfair weights placed on small business while corporations like GE with $14billion profits pay nothing comes from our hosed up tax system.
I just think it would be a good place to start to fix unemployment and the economy.
"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything
Life, the Universe, and Everything
>Do the numbers - we're scrod.
We are indeed between a rock and a hard place.
However, we have been this "screwed" before and recovered. Unemployment was far higher during the Great Depression - and we recovered. Our debt (as a ratio of GDP) was far higher after WWII - and we recovered.
That is not to say that it is a slam dunk we will recover this time. But it is certainly possible, and the primary thing we have to do is pay off our debt as the economy improves - fast enough that it actually reduces our debt with time, slow enough that we do not destroy the economy doing so.
>It has taken decades to bugger things up as badly as they are now, and there are NO,
>read ZERO, quick fixes.
That is absolutely true. We go through cycles of
gee things suck there's no way we will ever recover
it will take decades to recover
hmm, things are getting a bit better, I guess it's working but we're not out of the woods
it's working GREAT and we will never have another problem like that
things are working so well we don't even have to be careful any more
gee things suck there's no way we will ever recover
We are now back at the beginning of that cycle.
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