Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

mekender · Post by **mekender** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:45 pm

Fivetoes wrote:All true politicians will sell out anybody for a few more votes. That is what happened in the early 90's when laws were passed to make it possible for those who didn't have the necessary credit to buy a used automobile could be trusted to make house payments. The general population is as much to blame because of their indifference as to what laws were being passed in Washington. Things were going so good for the dems that they thought it would be a good idea to repeal regulations from the depression era. Lessons were not learned, now we are fucked again.

when 48% of the population do not pay taxes, you have a poor that can easily show up and out vote the tax payers... the only way to fix this country is to increase the wealth of the poor... the alternative will be either socialism or revolution...

FelixEstrella · Post by **FelixEstrella** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:00 pm

mekender wrote:the only way to fix this country is to increase the wealth of the poor...

You're falling into the trap of believing that "poverty" is more a problem of cash flow, rather than a disease of entitlement thinking.

A person who believes the [insert your favorite group here] owe him/her [insert your favorite entitlement] will be a problem for democracy no matter how much cash he/she has in the bank.

mekender · Post by **mekender** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:13 pm

FelixEstrella wrote:
mekender wrote:the only way to fix this country is to increase the wealth of the poor...
You're falling into the trap of believing that "poverty" is more a problem of cash flow, rather than a disease of entitlement thinking.

A person who believes the [insert your favorite group here] owe him/her [insert your favorite entitlement] will be a problem for democracy no matter how much cash he/she has in the bank.

read the next part my statement. the only way to fix this country is to make the 48% that dont pay taxes into people that do...

i have no illusions about the entitlement mentality... what i know is that if left unchecked much longer, the entitlement mentality will result in a socialist government. free markets only last so long as the population does not figure out that they can vote themselves a portion of the market.

FelixEstrella · Post by **FelixEstrella** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:16 pm

And you propose to do this how?

mekender · Post by **mekender** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:17 pm

FelixEstrella wrote:And you propose to do this how?

hell if i know... it might actually take a revolution.

FelixEstrella · Post by **FelixEstrella** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:28 pm

Mekender: I'm not ragging on you. Sorry if I sounded as if I was. I fundamentally understand what you're saying. But responsibility and an understanding of economics and basic human nature (not necessarily in that order, since the latter leads to the former as night follows day) is sadly in short supply these days.

mekender · Post by **mekender** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:35 pm

FelixEstrella wrote:Mekender: I'm not ragging on you. Sorry if I sounded as if I was. I fundamentally understand what you're saying. But responsibility and an understanding of economics and basic human nature (not necessarily in that order, since the latter leads to the former as night follows day) is sadly in short supply these days.

never took it that way... i completely agree with you, but what is the solution?

this bailout isnt going to do anything but reset us back to the same steep cliff... but not doing it might lead to a full collapse of the banking industry... at least so far, there are still companies that are buying other companies and not letting them just fail.

tcourtplayer · Post by **tcourtplayer** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:57 pm

Unfortunately, the only two solutions (to marching further down the road to socialism) I've been able to come up with in my head are politically unfeasible because of those that live off the entitlements have already grown too politically powerful to get this passed into law.

1: End this "progressive" tax system that includes poverty levels. Simply put, you make money, you will pay taxes on it.

2: Alter the franchise so that only those who pay income taxes are allowed to vote.

The goal of both of these is to basically try an get only those that have a vested interest in the future of the country to have a say in how we get there. But we all know how much of a chance either of these have.

Post by **Combat Controller** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:20 pm

I say a low national sales tax will level that playing field...

Erik · Post by **Erik** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:38 pm

CombatController wrote:I say a low national sales tax will level that playing field...

As long as it stays low. Once it's an established tax, it's easy to increase it. It started here at 2.4%, today it's 25%.

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Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

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