A GUARDIAN reader sent us this economic “comparison” which may be a bit simplistic, but it certainly puts not only our economic woes in perspective, but illustrates why so many Americans don’t see a problem.
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
…………
Now, remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385
So what’s the problem?
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Sep 26, 2011, 7:41 pm
We as a nation have got to pull in our horns. Pres. Bush with two wars, Medicare Part D and tax cuts that made no sense unless you were part of the Country Club Class.
Now we have Pres. Obama trying to buy his way back to prosperity, a Republican Congress that does not want to pay bill (the national debt fiasco).
All of this is unraveling the fabric of the country. There are plenty of examples in history of nations who failed to deal with fiscal problems and it was the people on the bottom who suffered the most. I believe in the notion you take in a dollar you can spend a dollar not a dollar and a dime or any deficit spending.
Stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pull the troops from all the bases in Europe and let them defend their own country. Convert to natural gas for everything we can and get out of the middle east as well. The fact that we are a debtor nation to China, the hated Communists of my generation is appalling and should be a wake-up call to the waste and spend Congress.
Sep 26, 2011, 9:40 pm
And they are really building up the laws to take what they don’t tax.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576570801651620000.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories#project%3DCRIMES_FEDOFFENSES_1107%26articleTabs%3Darticle
Sep 26, 2011, 9:41 pm
This is an interactive link: Click on items to expand etc.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Sep 27, 2011, 8:23 am
Its more like this
Annual Personal Income: $70,000
Home mortgage: $250,000
Education Debt: $50,000
Car Debt: $35,000
Credit card: $10,000
Total Outstanding Debt: $335,000
No one cutting their budget…
I don’t think a stimulus will solve this problem.
Sep 27, 2011, 10:06 am
As long as the minimum payment on that $142,710 credit card balance remains at $25, NO PROBLEMO!!
/sarcasm
(Yeah, the Democrats and Republicans BOTH share in the blame. The question is – who will step up and try to make a course correction?)
Sep 27, 2011, 1:44 pm
The American economy is the most productive pump the world has ever known. Prime that pump! Let’s get behind major infrastructure repair/development and put the country back to work instead of drowning in self-defeating pessimism.
Does spending on infrastructure seem counterintuitive?
Then read this alternative viewpoint by a nobel prize winning economist:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/opinion/06krugman.html
Let’s not confuse household budgets with the budgets of nations. They are entirely different and do not work in the same way. Pay down your personal debts. Yes. But let’s not support a national policy of “wacko austerity” that could trigger a deflationary spiral! There is nothing patriotic about gross economic ignorance.
Sep 27, 2011, 6:01 pm
Jerry, they’ve been handing out the Nobel to politically driven quacks for a long time. Krugman is all screwed up and probably a commie. By the way, are you also a political operative? Kinda sounds like it. When ya gonna tell us about hope and change? Still waiting for my Obama money. How we got into this mess is nincompoops that think the financial management of governments is different than the simple ones outlined above.
Sep 27, 2011, 9:34 pm
The problem is worse than described as the average family, minus all those zero’s, cannot simply print more money and in such printing, drive down the value of their neighbors money.
Sep 27, 2011, 11:08 pm
Krugman is an economist, not a politically-driven hack, and his analysis of the situation and his recommendations for fixing it are exactly correct.
Krugman is a commie? Zippo, do you do stand up comedy? Hope and change would have worked but there were enough GOP economic illiterates in the House of Representatives to monkey-wrench it.
Sep 27, 2011, 11:35 pm
Oh Oh, Big man on campus eats crow.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8793010/Germany-slams-stupid-US-plans-to-boost-EU-rescue-fund.html
Sep 28, 2011, 6:16 am
Zippo wrote:
“How we got into this mess is nincompoops that think the financial management of governments is different than the simple ones outlined above.”
No. We got into this mess because the elites of both parties failed to see an $8 trillion dollar housing bubble.
Zippo asked:
“Are you also a political operative?”
Nope. Just a nobody who disagrees with your own obvious ideological bent.
Sep 28, 2011, 12:01 pm
Rod, Krugman is to economists what Obama is to leaders…
Nuf said.
Jerry, the Housing Crash was the result of idiots ‘regulating’ us…that said, the prolongation of the recession is the responsibility of those who tried to spend us out of the mess with funny money.
Sep 28, 2011, 9:46 pm
JIMV,
Turn off the FOX NEWS for just a second and let’s take a break from Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck for a few minutes and read economist Dean Baker’s take on all of these self-described “conservative” frauds who run around preaching austerity for everybody but themselves. In fact, Dean Baker reveals how self-described “conservatives” game the market — causing income to flow upward:
http://www.deanbaker.net/images/stories/documents/End-of-Loser-Liberalism.pdf
Of course, if you want to continue believing in what Glenn Beck tells you, then read this New Yorker article here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/18/101018fa_fact_wilentz
Sep 28, 2011, 11:30 pm
Simple statistics for simple minds. The percentage of national debt is higher under all Republican presidents starting with Reagan than the Clinton and Obama combined, according to the US Treasury Dept.
Guardian, love how you throw the read meat out for the village idiots on this blog. So predictable, so pathetic.
Oct 4, 2011, 3:35 pm
How about this: End the Fed, stop taxing anything and have the US Treasury issue the $s!!
We can fire at least half the bureaucrats, all of the accountants and the US congress can spend to their heart’s content. All spending will be spread over all holding assets (rich pay more!) through the inflation that is created. All of us producers make out the best, so there is now an incentive to become a producer. Yay!
Oct 5, 2011, 6:07 pm
Jerry, what do you make of this?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100108992/michelle-obama’s-taxpayer-funded-spending-is-an-embarrassment-for-the-white-house/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter