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- Path: sparky!uunet!oracle!unrepliable!bounce
- Newsgroups: sci.econ
- From: kwee@oracle.uucp (Karl Wee)
- Subject: Re: "Death of America"
- Message-ID: <1992Dec27.011757.22808@oracle.us.oracle.com>
- Sender: usenet@oracle.us.oracle.com (Oracle News Poster)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: mailseq.us.oracle.com
- Reply-To: kwee@oracle.uucp (Karl Wee)
- Organization: Oracle Corporation, Belmont, CA
- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 01:17:57 GMT
- X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
- at Oracle Corporation. The opinions expressed are those
- of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.
- Lines: 50
-
- Kevin Carothers {psivax,philabs,retix,quad1}!ttidca!kevin writes:
- > You think the national debt is bad? Look at the CONSUMER debt! It was
- > something like 12 trillion in 1990.
-
- That would be $50,000 per person is the US! Even if this was true, Consumer
- debt would be fine as long as each person has a solid plan or confidence to
- pay back his debt, and we don't know if this wasn't the case. The US
- govt. is the most irresponsible borrower among these. It's going to drag
- all of us down because unlike private borrowers, it can tax and inflate our
- futures away.
-
- > Increasing tax receipts and decreasing spending was Perot's big picture.
- > Clinton tends to favor increasing receipts from a growing economy.
-
- That's why Clinton only got 5% above the hated George Bush in the popular
- vote. Some mandate.
-
- > The National debt is simply the difference between receipts and expenditures,
- > and NOTHING else. ANY method can be used to reduce (or eventually elimiinate)
- > it.
-
- Can you suggest any plan that doesn't ultimately boil down to a free lunch
- existing in the world?
-
- In a nutshell, when the govt. can no longer afford to postpone the crisis, it
- can only do one or a combination of 2 things: high inflation or high taxes.
- As a result of, or in anticipation of, the above, there will be unbelievable
- upheaval in the financial markets which in turn will cause banks and
- businesses to fail. Our economy is heavily leveraged on confidence and many
- kinds of confidence will break. That's why.
-
- > Unless you show evidence that economic growth can't work to reduce the debt,
- > I can't give much creedence in what you say.
-
- After WW2, American goods were the highest quality (and many were only
- available from America due to WW2) in the world. There was NO COMPETITION.
- Now not only do we get competition, but the American people have also been
- drugged into low productivity by a no-hard-choices lifestyle financed by
- borrowing from our future (specifically, low taxes AS WELL AS adequate govt.
- programs and entitlements to help those who can't make it). Can we get
- the same kind of economic growth?
-
- BTW, even according to Clinton's OWN CAMPAIGN estimates, he can only half
- the DEFICIT in 4 years. No one who knows half a thing thinks Clinton's
- numbers add up anyway. And his economic summit is such that the Economist
- this week carries an article called "The No Hard Choices Summit". If
- Clinton doesn't do something serious about the deficit, it'll be all over
- by the next election.
-
- - Karl Wee
-