2011-01-16, 11:22 PM
Hazzy Wrote:4.7% unemployment in 2006. 9.4% now.
The economy was very different. After the recession, I'll be right next to you in demanding reductions in government spending and the deficit/debt. Until then, the government needs to employ expansionary policies.
Ultimately, what's worse? A lethargic / shrinking economy or a large debt? The effects of an extreme recession can be seen by looking at the world in the early 1930s, but what proof is there that a large debt will cause anything even close to that?
The real unemployment numbers are higher because the government loves to exclude people from those numbers to skew the numbers. Probably around 20% now. And government expansion did not help then, and it wont help now. Its one of the reasons our economy is failing.
In terms of the economy, it is a result of issues like outsourcing and many government policies that are making it far more difficult for buinesses to work in our nation. To fix the economy, one step is to reduce the federal government's hold on our businesses. And no, I dont mean safety regulations and such (those to need to be removed slowly so that the states can enact their own policies, but that is a slitghtly different issue). I mean removing NAFTA, CAFTA, and other treaties and laws that are hurting American businesses.
And stop acting like the national debt and our economy are two different issues, because our debt does affect our economy. It is one of the factors affecting the value of the dollar, and as this debt grows, the value of the dollar decreases. Eventually our dollar is going to be so worthless that it will lose it's status as the world's reserve currency. Once this happens, demand for the dollar will sharply fall, it will become far more worthless and life in America will become far higher. Some countries like Russia and China stopped accepting the dollar as the reserve currency already. Its only a matter of time before other countries follow.
Also, this event has happened before in Brittian. The Sterling was the reserve currency, and when it lost that status the country fell into a depression far worse than the one we are in now. It will be worse than the great depression. history proves it.
Just as an added note, one of the main causes of this depression is that the government repealed the Glass Steagall Act, allowing Banks to perform the same actions that caused the Great Depression (the GSA was enacted to prevent the same circumstances that created the Great Depression). It wasnt just giving out loans to those that coulding pay the loans. It was mostly the fact that the banks decided to gamble behind the scenes. The worst part is that when these banks lost all their money to their irresponsible and formerly illegal behaviour, we bailed them out. They caused the collapse, and we bailed them out... such a double wammy.