quote:
posted by seeweed:
until we, in this country, decide to produce goods again, no full scale recovery is going to be possible. I therefore think we should make it economically not fesable for a company to produce products in another country and ship them here
posted by dolemitejb:
Congratulations, you've just driven up the cost of everything. Now, the poor can't afford us much as they could before. Mercantilism fails...everytime.
The poor can't afford as much as they could before? No, that's not the problem. The poor - along with the middle and upper classes - are just buying a lot more stuff than they actually need. And we're importing way too much cheap, useless crap that people don't need.
Televisions, computers and washing machines are built to last a few years. There are simply too many fluffy pillows and plastic gadgets (that we all somehow did without 20+ years ago) on the shelves at big box mart.
How much more of this useless stuff do you think our landfills can take?
quote:
posted by seeweed:
obsession with the national debt at this point in time is actually going to hurt. Happened during 39 so we know what can happen if it is too much of a worry. I hate to have to admit that fact because I hate debt so much, but we are where we are.
posted by dolemitejb:
I don't expect the debt to be paid down...ever. A default is more likely than finding a politician willing to let working people keep their money. A politician's job - by definition - is to steal working peoples' money and spend it on things designed to improve re-election chances. That said, as the debt increases, the buying power of American dollars decreases, and the poor and middle classes quality of life will go down with that drop in buying power. So, adding anything to the debt is only a further burden on those who need the most relief.
Americans haven't stopped buying yet. And if we want to buy anything, chances are it's made in China, making China's economy dependent on U.S. customers. Also, because Europe is experiencing a worse fiscal crisis than the U.S., China will continue to buy our bad debt; the dollar is still a safer bet than the euro.
Debt is not good but as long as we're China's best customer they will not try to bankrupt us. If the U.S. economy collapses, so does China's.