You can See our Future in Greece

Why We Aren't Like Greece 

 

“What’s the difference between the United States and Greece?” should be the setup line for a joke.

The problems faced by the Greek economy—and now, through contagion, perhaps the entire eurozone—are nothing like the problems facing the US economy. However, people with a clear political agenda are doing their best to confuse the public and claim that a crisis created by the collapse of the housing bubble is really a crisis of excessive government spending. Their goal is to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and they are prepared to use their money and their influence over the media to achieve it.

 

The analogy to Greece is a farce from the word go. Greece had chronic deficits even in the good years. Its debt-to-GDP ratio was rising in the years before the crash, when its economy was experiencing strong growth. It now has a debt-to-GDP ratio approaching 150 percent. By contrast, in the United States, even with the Bush tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the debt-to-GDP ratio was stable during the housing bubble years. It is now just above 60 percent.

 

The second key difference between Greece and the United States is that we borrow in our own currency. At the end of the day, if we cannot tax or borrow the money needed to pay our bills, we can print it. That may not be pretty (it could lead to inflation), but as long as our debt is denominated in dollars we will never have the IMF dictating terms to us.

 

The S&P downgrades, with perhaps similar downgrades to follow from Moody’s and Fitch, are similar in nature to the Greek joke. Remember, this is a credit rating agency that, like the other two, gave investment-grade ratings to hundreds of billions of dollars in subprime mortgage-backed securities. It also gave Lehman Brothers and AIG A-level ratings right up until their demise. Of course, S&P was paid millions for these ratings, leaving open the question of whether the problem is corruption or incompetence.

The obvious explanation for both the rise in bond prices and the fall in the stock market is the fear of a euro meltdown. If the eurozone were to break up, it would lead to a world financial freeze-up that could be even worse than the post-Lehman panic. Desperate investors are fleeing to the safety of US Treasuries, a move that is 180 degrees at odds with the downgrade story.

 

The real problem in the US economy is a lack of demand resulting from the fact that 28 million people are unemployed, underemployed or out of the workforce. Policy debates should be focused on getting these people back to work. Unfortunately, the people who control the national agenda care little about the devastation they have wreaked with their greed and incompetence. Their philosophy of government is that a dollar that goes to the middle class and the poor is a dollar that should be going to the wealthy. This means that as long as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are still providing income and security to ordinary Americans, they will be pushing to pare these entitlements back. And they are prepared to use everything in their power to accomplish their goals.

http://www.thenation.com/artic...why-we-arent-greece#

So every time the government wants to raise our taxes we should bend over and take it.  Where does it stop?  The five percent increase with the onset of odumacare, and expiration of W's tax cuts should be plenty.  Shouldn't it?

Once more consider the source of the article (prop's article)-The Nation. What is The Nation?

The Nation is the oldest continuously-published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left."^[2] Founded on July 6, 1865, it is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.

The Nation has bureaus in Washington, D.C., London and South Africa, with departments covering architecture, art, corporations, defense, environment, films, legal affairs, music, peace and disarmament, poetry and the United Nations. Circulation peaked at 187,000 in 2006 but by 2010 had dropped back to 145,000 in print, though digital subscriptions had risen to over 15,000.^[4] Print ad pages declined by 5% from 2009 to 2010, while digital advertising rose 32.8% from 2009–10.^[5] Advertising accounts for 10% of total revenue for the magazine, while circulation totals 60%.^[4] The Nation has lost money in all but three or four years of operation and is sustained in part by a group of more than 30,000 donors called The Nation Associates, who donate funds to the periodical above and beyond their annual subscription fees.^{[citation needed]} This program accounts for 30% of the total revenue for the magazine. An annual cruise also generates $200,000 for the magazine.^[4]

Speaking of South Africa, I think that is a better model of our future. 

A first-world country taken over by a black communist who wanted to take everything from the people who could, and give it to the people who couldn't.

Now a third-world country.

People should have the choice of contributing to a private retirement account or social security. The radical left hates giving conplete financial freedom to individuals though.

Lol

Kenny,

I would love to have all the money that I have donated into Social Security for the past 31 years.  Then it will all be on me.  If I loose it, it's all my fault.  If I make money from investments, it's all my fault.  At least I know where it is and where it goes.  Instead of buying some usless piece of crap a free cell phone. 

The second key difference between Greece and the United States is that we borrow in our own currency. At the end of the day, if we cannot tax or borrow the money needed to pay our bills, we can print it. That may not be pretty (it could lead to inflation), but as long as our debt is denominated in dollars we will never have the IMF dictating terms to us.

Yea right shows who much liberals know about economics just print out way out of it hilarious!!!

What do you expect? Democrats don't live in the real world. Good gracious, they think 192 is 92% of 384 and that 384 are all of the economists. Then they whine about not being able to afford health care while they burn $5.00 to $15.00 or more, a day, on cigarettes, and/or drink it up in beer and other liquor. It reminds me of the joke I heard a long time ago-"they're so poor the baby has to sleep in the box the new color TV came in". 

Unfortunately, the people who control the national agenda care little about the devastation they have wreaked with their greed and incompetence. Their philosophy of government is that a dollar that goes to the middle class and the poor is a dollar that should be going to the wealthy. This means that as long as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are still providing income and security to ordinary Americans, they will be pushing to pare these entitlements back. And they are prepared to use everything in their power to accomplish their goals.

Yes these people are the ones saying they open minded and call Fox News a bunch fear mongers!

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Debate Rule #1: When you can't dispute the facts and have no argument, attack the messenger.

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Your private retirement account would have lost 40% of is value after the Whiz Kids of Wall Street got through having "complete financial freedom" with it.

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Yeah, yeah -- we've heard it before: "47% of Americans don't want to take personal responsibility for their lives." 

There is a group of people in this country called "the working poor." They do take responsibility for their lives by working and earning a paycheck, but not really enough to make things better in their lives. They are running faster and faster and either not going anywhere or are falling behind.

What does it mean to be poor?

 

If it means living at or below the poverty line, then 15 percent of Americans -- some 46 million people -- qualify. But if it means living with a decent income and hardly any savings -- so that one piece of bad luck, one major financial blow, could land you in serious, lasting trouble -- then it's a much larger number. In fact, it's almost half the country.

 

"The resources that people have -- they are using up those resources," said Jennifer Brooks, director of state and local policy at the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group. "They're living off their savings. They're at the end of their rope."

 

That's not to say that everyone who is liquid-asset poor spends all their time fretting. On the contrary, because many have regular paychecks coming in, they may not grasp the precariousness of their situation.

 

"They don't necessarily realize how close people can be to one interruption to income or one interruption to health benefits," said David Rothstein, the project director for asset building at the non-profit Policy Matters Ohio. "They're one paycheck away from being in debt."

 

"People say things like, it's just one mechanical problem with their car," said Rothstein. Before they know it, he said, "every other week, they're back at the payday lending shop."

At the same time, Corporation for Enterprise Development officials were quick to argue that public policy needs to address the scope of the problem. Levere cited the example of asset limits in public benefit programs, which restrict services like food assistance and public health insurance to households with few or no assets -- a policy that critics say denies help to many people in need.

 

"In some cases," said Levere, "it means they can't even own a car that is in good enough shape to get them to work."

 

Brooks agreed. "A family that loses its job, that was maybe solidly middle class, in a state where they have restrictive asset tests, is going to have to liquidate all their assets, all their savings for the future" in order to qualify for benefits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...verty_n_1243152.html

And that is how those who were solidly middle class slide into the "working poor" in this present economic climate.