What would you do to revive the US economy?

[Pseudomind]

Ah, but there is a item missing, and as such your comments would apply if all else was equal, but when you have a large media influence pushing fear, you no longer have a valid point driving the speculation, instead you have fear mongering and propaganda influencing the uneducated masses.

Go back and look at some of the relatively speaking schemes blamed for the price of oil going up by the media, I seem to recall one was an oil tanker going a ground, amounts to a fart in a hurricane. But the media giants love it, more ad sales.

And for my two cents if one does not get some type of major manufacturing back into this country, the service industry is not going to support our economy. What is China doing, why cheap manufacturing, so why not turn most service items over to them also to handle. Cloud computing, basically all accounting, designing, controlling etc performed from somewhere else, e.g another country.

Greed, just good old greed! :huh:

 

[Woody]

SSI should be for Seniors only! Sorry kids and alcohol and drug addicts....you didn't pay in enough yet, if any, to draw from the fund. I think that would be a start, Mike.

Could you be a little more specific.

 

[MonacoMike]

Ah, but there is a item missing, and as such your comments would apply if all else was equal, but when you have a large media influence pushing fear, you no longer have a valid point driving the speculation, instead you have fear mongering and propaganda influencing the uneducated masses.

Go back and look at some of the relatively speaking schemes blamed for the price of oil going up by the media, I seem to recall one was an oil tanker going a ground, amounts to a fart in a hurricane. But the media giants love it, more ad sales.

I would hope oil investors and speculators are basing their financial tranactions on more than the "fear mongering and propaganda" of the media.

And for my two cents if one does not get some type of major manufacturing back into this country, the service industry is not going to support our economy. What is China doing, why cheap manufacturing, so why not turn most service items over to them also to handle. Cloud computing, basically all accounting, designing, controlling etc performed from somewhere else, e.g another country.

Manufacturing will always look for 4 things to select where they locate, (not in any particular order) access to labor, access to raw material, access to distribution and logistics, and regulatory costs. Many people mistakenly think China is going along perfectly as that is what the state run media puts out. Many US economists think the Chinese Government is propping up a bad situation. (just like us) If a US kid can make $8 selling cell phones or TV's why work in a dirty shop? Many kids in this country will not work unless they want to. I have seen numerous stories of recent college grads that will live in mom and dads basement rather than take a job they feel is under them. For all the "manufacturing jobs promoter's" on here what would happen to our GDP if we lost the service sector. I too appreciate manufacturing jobs in a balanced economy but they are not the only type of job. MM

 

[MonacoMike]

Crony capitalism at it's best GE paid NO tax on $14 billion in profits, while it's officers donated over a 1/2 million to Obama campaign. MM

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs...-paid-no-taxes-14-billion-profits_609137.html

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638

 

[floriduramax1]

Crony capitalism at it's best GE paid NO tax on $14 billion in profits, while it's officers donated over a 1/2 million to Obama campaign. MM

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs...-paid-no-taxes-14-billion-profits_609137.html

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638

Laugh or mock me, but GE and George Soros are pulling the strings right now. I didn't arrive at that from the "media", I study.

 

[Woody]

Crony capitalism at it's best GE paid NO tax on $14 billion in profits, while it's officers donated over a 1/2 million to Obama campaign. MM

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs...-paid-no-taxes-14-billion-profits_609137.html

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638

Crony capitalism may be involved here but for sure the main problem is tax code and some are of the opinion that corporate rates aren't low enough.:smt101 Nominal rates are one thing, call them what you will, as always it's the effective rate that tells the story and here's a shinning example.

 

[CV-23]

Could you be a little more specific.

Social Security is being paid out to many who have not paid in. Ask any bank teller who sees them every month. People able to work cash their checks every month. Being disabled due to alcohol & drugs abuse is an excuse. The system is overloaded, Mike.

 

[320Bob]

GE is not the only company with zero taxable income. A number of companies that make $billion capital investments benefit from bonus depreciation and tax credits as an incentive to expand. In the case of utilities this generates large deferred tax balances. If that utility is filing to raise rates it actually reduce the amount they can ask for. For others it provides more available cash. It may or may not result directly in more jobs. If they simplify the tax code to eliminate these tax breaks, it will actually cost my firm some business since we model this nonsense but I am still in favor of simplification as long as it is not done to just soak the rich.

 

[Woody]

Social Security is being paid out to many who have not paid in. Ask any bank teller who sees them every month. People able to work cash their checks every month. Being disabled due to alcohol & drugs abuse is an excuse. The system is overloaded, Mike.

How can a bank teller tell I wonder? Actually you're talking two different things SSI and SS. SS doesn't pay out if you didn't pay in except for dependent type situations.

 

[bigblockcutlass]

This is so the way it is!!!!

For those that can't read... here's a video:

[video=youtube;BXRjmyJFzrU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU[/video]

 

[bigblockcutlass]

[video=youtube;9gnZW1nv0aU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gnZW1nv0aU&feature=related[/video]

This is a cool place. I was there about 25 years ago. Hope to go back, maybe with the boat someday.
Look what happen when the town didn't produce anything.

 

[Four Suns]

We need more "Bobs"

[video=youtube;N_iniUNtFoc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_557326&src_vid=OAOr T0OcHh0&v=N_iniUNtFoc&feature=iv[/video]

 

[Nehalennia]

...or Bills

 

[mmcguire2002]

Can you please connect the dots for me on how the government taking money from someone creates a job? Are you suggesting that the government impose some sort of non-income tax based on how much wealth someone has? So lets say I have a business that I built from nothing and I sell it for $40 million... give the state and feds $10 million... create 70 $100K/year jobs... decide to retire with $30 mil in the bank... Are you suggesting the government should keep coming back to the well and take more money every year? What is "fair share"? I'm doing the over 50% income tax thing now and have dopes telling me that it's not "fair share"... you watching too much MSNBC?

My concern is that going after people who become successful means no one "new" ever has a chance of becoming successful... I guess that fixes the "envy" problem. The bottom line is there is no easy way to become wealthy. You have to risk a lot and then there is only a chance you get there. I applaud people who start with nothing, risk it all, and sit on "oodles of cash." There is no reason more people can't do that. My belief is the government can create opportunity but it's role is to not guarantee outcomes and "level the field." Someone needs to help me understand how "the man" is holding anyone back from starting a company... or is it people just want other people to do that "risk" (home on the line, etc) and then demand part of it.

+1. Also very well stated without insults or trying to agitate. The logic makes good sense and also is fair. When the country was founded it was a major risk to come here. It was an even bigger risk to cultivate new areas, invest in new parts of the country or new trades. There were no guarantees. Unfortunately each generation (and I suspect I am younger than most on this board, though not all) has a stronger sense of entitlement and looks for assistance. Blame, however, does not purely lie with the younger generations, as they have been trained by the offerings of those older them that there are ways to easy income, "do overs" and a right to own multiple cars, large homes and even boats. Sadly, I believe the only entitlement that should have been maintained was the right to do at least as well as those that came before them...this has however, been almost surely taken away, as future generations (and probably even mine) will have to pay the price for constantly paying for this years expenses with next years expected income, which also is not guaranteed.

 

[mmcguire2002]

This has been a sore point to me for a while. So I am going to start this off with a quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

In 1933, The Glass-Segal Act was passed which prevented the banks from becoming so powerful that they were out of control. This act contained the controls to prevent the wealthy from becoming greedy. From the end of WWII to the 70's was the greatest era of prosperity for both the middle class and the wealthy. In the 70's the tearing apart of that act started the series of events that led us back to where bankers and rich corporations ruled.

My local news paper was a column about how the different countries and how the ratio of pay between the CEO and the average worker. Japan 11:1; Germany 12:1; France 15:1, Italy 20:1 Canada 20:1; .....USA 475:1.

A separate article showed in just the last decade, the wage increase for the middle class was less than 2% compared to greater than 22% for the upper 5% of the income earners.

Another article I read recently showed out of the fortune 400 companies, 80 of those companies had a net gain of taxes of less than 0. This was showing what they paid in taxes and what money the government paid them in subsidies or bail outs. Many of those 400 companies paid less than 22% while only a very few paid greater than 30% in taxes.

Another article showed that 3 times the government has allowed corporations to bring over seas wealth back into the country under several programs at reduced tax rates. The intent was to increase jobs at home. Did not work.

The Supreme Court now allows corporations freedom of speech by allowing unlimited contributions to political agendas and creation of political action committees to spread the business agenda over the people.

The current method of campaigning has created a system where the politicians are bought and paid for by big corporations.

Until such time that the elected officials can no longer be bought and paid for by these special interest groups, nothing will change, the rich will get richer, and the middle class will loose and become the poor. Our government is nothing more than a straw government for businesses.

Sorry for my rant, but back in the 90's I was making over $120k a year, now I am down to $80k.

I don't agree with everything you are trying to say here, but I do think I agree with one of your points. I am firmly in favor of getting rid of all Lobbyists and Unions. I'm also in favor of a flat tax and eliminating the IRS, but that is another thread in and of itself.

 

[mmcguire2002]

We need more "Bobs"

[video=youtube;N_iniUNtFoc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_557326&src_vid=OAOr T0OcHh0&v=N_iniUNtFoc&feature=iv[/video]

This segment pretty much echoes my reply to previous posts before I was able to get to this. Points are very valid and also very scary. Someone has to pay the piper.

 

[Ka1oxd]

I am for the entrepreneurial model. I have had business in the past and now working on a new business plan for my wife. But there is a difference between small business and very large corporations. When you run a small business, to be successful, it is about customer service. But not just your external customers, but your internal customers as well. this includes your employees and the relationship between them and you. You have to invest in your employees just like any other parts of the business.

While I just resigned from a fairly large international corporation, the driving force was the tone at the top that left a very sour taste in my mouth. Within 15 minutes of my resignation, all my internal customers went running to the CISO yelling at him because I was leaving. The reason behind that was that I treat everyone the way I liked to be treated. That as I did my job, it was not as a dictator, but as a mentor. There were many heated discussions with my customers, but the key was I listened to their points of view. They would listen to mine, and we together would come up with a solution that worked.

That mutual respect is missing in lots of large companies. When I ran my business, yes I made money, but I realized that without my investment in my employees, I could not make more. I could in the short term if I did not invest in the employees and kept that investment for myself, but in the long run I would loose. It is not about short term goals, it is an eye on the future as well.

We do not have that high level of morals and ethics today.

 

[MonacoMike]

We do not have that high level of morals and ethics today.

Why would we have that? Most of our population is taught moral relativism by our public schools, reaffirmed in our institutions of higher learning. All while few are taught anything at home, and they are not involved in church or participate in feel good churches. (You know, the ones that want your money and will never tell you that something you did was wrong.) MM

I just realized how far from the original topic I just got.

 

[floriduramax1]

Why would we have that? Most of our population is taught moral relativism by our public schools, reaffirmed in our institutions of higher learning. All while few are taught anything at home, and they are not involved in church or participate in feel good churches. (You know, the ones that want your money and will never tell you that something you did was wrong.) MM

I just realized how far from the original topic I just got.

You may have "strayed" but what you said is disturbingly true

 

[Woody]

Why would we have that? Most of our population is taught moral relativism by our public schools, reaffirmed in our institutions of higher learning. All while few are taught anything at home, and they are not involved in church or participate in feel good churches. (You know, the ones that want your money and will never tell you that something you did was wrong.) MM

I just realized how far from the original topic I just got.

You may have "strayed" but what you said is disturbingly true

Don't worry guys, a new Super Committee Chaired by Bob will answer the questions surrounding lifes origin and purpose right after they fix this budget deficit issue. This of course will emphasis Bob's ability to find opportunity often disguised by adversity and the common man will recognize his presence. With 25k in campaign funds from his uncle, Bob will make a run to fill this countrys leadership void. BOB FOR PRESIDENT signs will soon be the centerpiece of every lawn. Gone will be the political voices garbled by the remnants of Bush's pants leg and fake birth certificates. I can't wait, I'm so excited.