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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (216334)	2/7/2013 3:26:36 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 542043

"The fact that we owe 80% of what our country earns as an economy should be a wake-up call for unsustainable spending. " Oh, I don't know. Do you have a mortgage? I don't at the moment, but there was a time in my life when I had a mortgage equal to 200% of my yearly earnings. That didn't include other debt I carried. Neither of these countries is considered a deadbeat and others buy their debt willingly. en.wikipedia.org The level of public debt in Japan in 2011 was 204% of GDP. [2] The level of public debt in Germany in the same year was 85% of GDP. [3] Debt to GDP ratio by country:

To: cosmicforce who wrote (216334)	2/7/2013 4:43:18 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542043

You're definitely not talking my language but I suspect I get your point nonetheless. Best I can tell, even Krugman agrees with the point you are making. The disagreement occurs over when to address it and how to address it. The first question is what to do in as serious an economic downturn as our present one remains. And the answer is, by and large, a Keynesian one. Use government money to keep spending afloat, which keeps tax dollars flowing in and less flowing out for the safety net. Then address the deficit once the economy straightens out. That, of course, leaves the question of the political machinations as to just how to do it off the table. That's the catch. And the answer for the second, speaking very cryptically, is, at least as far as I'm concerned, to ratchet the tax revenues back up to at least Clinton levels or even pre Reagan levels and cut back on military deployment around the world.