You are remarkably articulate. Thanks for a great post. On the right I am as radical as it gets. The solution I see is for the US Govt. to follow the example of the Soviet Union, haul down the flag, and move into the mists of history. Let the phoenix rise from the flames in a new incarnation. I'm post-American because I perceive America's problems as insoluble in this iteration. America has had at least three incarnations in the past. Time to move on.
One interesting aspect to all of our issues in the USA is that as a nation we can't even define our problems; the great political divide of the two dominant parties won't allow any form of consensus. Logic dictates, unless we are truly lucky, that if we can't define our problems then it is unlikely we can solve our problems. Too many believe if we allow enough time to pass that everything will simply fix itself. All the debt will go away, millions of jobs will be created, government spending will be in check, gold will fall from the sky, blah...blah...blah. Even though we have horrendous problems, we can't use horrendous solutions; anything requiring an ounce of sacrifice is considered too harsh. If any of these characterizations above of the USA can be accurate, how in the world can we chart a new course to solve problems and do better...
Easy, nobody would ever make more than $1 million a year. All would be reinvested. However, the problem is that no income tax revenue would ever be paid.
It doesn't have anything to do with jealousy, just equity. When you have a class of people who grow richer just by calling their congressmen or hiring a lobbyist, they suck the life out of everybody.
Luck is a combination of preparation and opportunity. The people of America remind me of the Solomon Islanders during and shortly after WWII who created the Cargo Cult: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
There can be no equity without community. Multi-culturalism killed all notions of community in America. Now it's too late.
Well, GDP doubled from 1980 to 2010 so it is not as impossible as you seem to think that it will double again from 15trillion to 30trillion in the next 30 years.
Then there's dumb luck which hits you on the head while you are preparing for something entirely different. I don't know what the collective we are waiting for? So many must simply believe that all the evil stuff is just going to go away, vanish, the boogeyman will be gone, and all will be great. Maybe divine intervention will surprise many of us and solve some of the problems? It's this human behavior, or your cargo cult, that encourages people to avoid hard decision making...meanwhile nothing gets done...
Do you want to take the risk that everything will work out just fine...or would you prefer to be a little more proactive today in order to minimize the bumps down the road? Although the future will partially mimic the past, many other external factors exist today and into the future that will change the presupposed outcomes...
Maybe, maybe not. It is the future and so, unknowable. However, that does not entirely eliminate the probability that long term historical trends, like economic growth, will continue over the medium term. What you consider to be proactive action is a horrendous immediate solution to improbable future problems based on the proposition that the temporary short term issues of today are permanent and will continue indefinitely. Unfortunately for your position, long term historical trends disagree and the probability that the long arc of historical economic development will suddenly diverge from its historical average is quite small barring some major global catastrophe like a massive asteroid impact or global warfare that includes the deployment of nuclear weapons on a mass scale. Personally, I do not expect either of these things to happen and so am not convinced that there is any sort of pending catastrophe that requires tossing the poor, the elderly, and the sick under the bus now so the rest of us can be adequately prepared for a future that is unpredictable. Besides, the historical medium term average of revenue to fund the Federal government has been around 18% of GDP. If revenue was raised back to that average the governments fiscal problems would be addressed.
Actually it didn't. What changed, as someone pointed out, were the accounting practices that started including many financial transactions that were not reflective of new goods and services being produced. The GDP only represents new goods and services produced within the year and not all financial transactions. I'm not sure of all of the accounting practices that have changed but I can provide an examples of a financial transactions which is unrelated to the GDP. Stock transactions, except for the brokers services and fees, are not an element of the GDP. They merely represent the transfer of ownership of the corporation and do not produce anything. The sale of land (real estate) excluding fees and services related to the transaction does not represent production even when the value of the land increases. Nothing is being produced as the land has always existed. Just because the government posts a number does not mean that the number they present represents actual GDP growth. The US government and the Federal Reserve change the criteria for political or financial reasons and the People often believe these numbers without question.
What unites you and me in a single community that we both adhere to? Blood or tribe? Nope. Culture? Nope. An idea? The idea died. So what shared identity and consciousness would induce me to sacrifice myself for you? That's a tough question.
There is a singular uniting ideal that is common to Americans regardless of cultural differences. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm The ideal is timeless and is anything but obsolete.
When did this happen? If it did one would expect to see some sudden leap in GDP figures or the appearance of a new column but that does not seem apparent to me when I look at the historical table of GDP here: http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb...&AllYearsChk=YES&Update=Update&JavaBox=no#Mid Perhaps you could point out where this happened. Where else can you get these figures from? As far as I can tell the government numbers are the ones everyone uses since no one else has the data gathering capacity. Today you have significant debt, deficit spending, high unemployment, outsourcing in a global economy, population growth, political divisiveness, and about five senseless and needless wars. IMO you cannot compare the future with the past which was void of this stuff and have a very accurate prediction. Pretty much. Economic growth will reduce all the problems over the medium term with only some small changes if they are implemented soon. Drastic changes now will only exacerbate current difficulties and make the prospects for medium term recovery even less certain as ignored consequences become apparent. I do, but these things are to be expected in an economy such as ours where the current scheme of governance and taxation encourages the wealthy to increase their wealth through speculative adventure rather than the more onerous activity of expanding commercial and industrial production to achieve greater wealth. Normally, in a normal economy you would do that but the opposite happened when the economy was great. Besides, the wealthy have increased their wealth as the economy declined so increasing taxes on them would actually increase demand for goods and services at this time by redirecting money from the unproductive speculative markets to the purchase of actual goods and services.
The ideal of individual liberty is subordinated by the political left in this country. It has been subordinated to the ideal of equality of outcome. That's why your side is imposing Obamacare on the nation. Because the left prioritizes equality of outcome the ideal of individual liberty is endangered. Your side is killing the ideal that I love. There is no political consensus for your ideal.
The DofI was written by men who wanted to keep ALL the wealth that was otherwise going to the king. That ain't my ideal.
The chart itself shows where the problems exist. It measures consumption and not production. Not all consumption relate to new goods and services introduced during a fiscal year and yet the definition of annual GDP is the amount of new goods and services produced in a fiscal year. As I noted previously land is neither created or destroyed. Land can never be considered as a part of the GDP by definition but if we measure the expendatures related to the land itself, not improvements to it, and include it as a component of "consumption" then it misrepresents what the GDP actually is. Used cars are not a part of the GDP. They were previously measured as a component of the GDP when they were produced and sold new. A $50,000 car cannot be counted again when it sells for $25,000 and then again when it sells for $10,000 and then when it is sold for $2,000. That would reflect a total GDP of $87,000 for a car that was only worth $50,000 when it was "Produced" and the GDP measure production. It would certainly show up as "consumption" every time it resold but nothing new was produced and it is not a component of the GDP which only measures that which is produced whether it is a commodity or service. Realize that much of this table was filled out retroactively so the numbers did not always exist. The "GDP" was revised so that it doesn't show a dramatic change. It retroactively "cooks the books" to show that which is not a component of the GDP as now being a component. It measures consumption and not new production of goods and services and the two are not the same as consumption includes expendatures on things that were previously produced and previously accounted for.
That is a very pertinent question that I don't have an answer for. The government could certainly provide this if they wanted to establish the criteria that would measure it but I don't see it as being in the interest of the politicans to do so. As noted it would be less than total consumption which is what they're using today as a criteria. This would really screw with the politicans ability to do things like compare the national debt to the GDP as the GDP would be less. Of course the politicans using the GDP as a yardstick for the national debt is bogus anyway because the government does not own the GDP. National debt needs to be measured relative to general government revenues (not including FICA/Payroll taxes which to date haven't been responsible for any deficit spending) but when that is done the national debt really begins to look ugly. Instead of the national debt being roughly equal to the GDP all of a sudden they'd be reporting it's over ten times the revenues from general taxation. It would measure "debt to revenue" which is what financial institutions use related to individuals which is accurate. So, excludiing an exhaustive study I don't know where the actual GDP can be calculated but I will see if I can find some criteria that might be used when compared to a GDP using consumption and opposed to production as the criteria.
Actually the ideal of individual liberty is being routinely violated by both liberals and conservatives. The only difference is which liberies are being violated. BTW I'm not a "liberal" in the sense of "progressive liberal" and I oppose not only the HCR bill but Social Security and Medicare as well. The federal government has no Constitutional responsibilities related to providing for the welfare of the people. Article I Section 8 specifically limits the federal government to providing for the "common defence and general Welfare of the United States" and the United States and the People are two completely different entities and every role and responsibility related to providing for the common Defence and general Welfare is enumerated in Article I Section 8. Also of note the Constitution does not authorize Congress or the President to intervene in the sovereign affairs of other nations.
It's impossible to get 'real' numbers because there are political reasons to bias all data that comes from these idiots. There is little transparency and honesty in government...like in my area where it requires a public lawsuit in order to get the county to release 'public' records that show the 'real' pension data...and even with a court order in place the county is dragging their feet! If we ever knew all the 'real' stuff we would vomit...
When we look at the definition of Gross Domestic Product it reflects new goods and services produced annually. This is "production" and not "consumption" and yet when we look at the government numbers they all related to consumption and much of that relates to products that were previously produced, sold, and then resold. That is not something I made up. It is also true that using the GDP as a measurement related to the national debt is completely bogus. The national debt is related to general tax revenues which are responsible for repayment of that debt. Using an analogy my personal debt is related to my income and not the income of the corporation that I work for. Using the GPD to national debt as a ratio, which is done by politicians, is done to deceive the people into believing the national debt isn't as bad as it really is. The US government does not own the GDP and the GDP is unrelated to the national debt which is paid for with general tax revenues.
