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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (316234)	12/18/2006 11:14:11 AM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573817

<> Didn't you take out a mortgage to buy your first house? I don't know about you, but I work to pay mine off eventually... Al

To: Elroy who wrote (316234)	12/18/2006 1:00:31 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573817

Deficit spending means you are adding to your debt. That crowds out private sector spending. That's not good. As far as my house, as I explained in a previous email, yes I have a mortgage. But that is debt backed by an appreciating asset. I actually did the finance calculation to determine whether paying it off or keeping the money in the market was a better deal, including tax effects. I determined that since I have a 5.25% mortgage, it is a better deal for me to keep the debt when you consider the greater returns I get in the market and the income tax shield. Our gov't doesn't have an appreciating asset behind it's debt. That debt is owned by foreign governments and our government is mortgaging our future.

To: Elroy who wrote (316234)	12/21/2006 3:34:20 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573817

Yes, exactly. You have two choices to eliminate the deficit: either cut spending or raise taxes. Or keep the deficit at a serviceable level, and not eliminate it. Debt is not bad. Debt on which you can't pay the interest is bad (it's too much). I think you are working too hard to make your point. Debt is always a negative. Its just not as bad sometimes as it is other times. For an example, manageable debt is much better than debt that can't be managed but its never good. Didn't you take out a mortgage to buy your first house? He probably did.....but its a very costly way to own a house. Ever see an amortization schedule for owning a home. Most home mortgages are 30 years. The first 15 years of payments are just for the interest. That's a lot of interest. You don't start paying off the principal until the 16th year. Its not a cheap way to buy a house but its better than not having one, or saving all your life to buy one near the end of that life like they do in some parts of Europe.