It's finally official: We're doomed

This article appeared in the commentary section of my local Denver Post. It's finally official: We're doomed

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Americans might have a similar reaction to the much-heralded suggestions of the co-chairs of the debt commission convened by President Obama. Reality is that even this modest hodgepodge of tax hikes and spending cuts pasted together by the co-chairs is unlikely to pass the entire committee, much less Congress.

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It seems that our government cannot agree on a plan that will reign in government spending and/or tax gathering.Math never lies, and anyone handy with a calculator will tell you that there will come an event horizon...a point of no return beyond which our economic spending will never recover.First of all, I think that the idea of cutting jobs and services is not helping the problems that those jobs and services were designed to help.Second of all, even though I favor taxing the rich, I am wise enough to know that the rich will always win. The rest of us will suffer. Debt plan splits both left and rightThis article also addresses the problem. To wit:

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WASHINGTON By putting deep spending cuts and substantial tax increases on the table, President Barack Obama's bipartisan debt-reduction commission has exposed fissures in both parties, underscoring the volatile nature and long odds of any attempt to address the nation's long-term budget problems.

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Are we really going to end up fiddling while Rome burns? Will we accept the painful solutions that we have put off for too long?
Will batman escape in time to rescue us?|Stay tuned...same Phat time....same Phat channel!

Many of our major and essential oil and natural gas pipelines are currently over twenty five years past their expected lifetime.Many of our dams are currently over twenty five years past their expected lifetime.Many of our bridges are currently over twenty five years past their expected lifetime.Many of our power distribution systems are over twenty five years past their expected lifetime.About twenty five years ago the US decided to change the way utilities and infrastructure were funded.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

How does that work, in your view? Seriously. Explain the methodology by which government deficit spending and a tax basis that never rises above about 30 percent of GDP somehow "dooms" us.You want the government to spend less? Tell me what you want the government to stop doing. Stop fighting fires? Stop policing the streets? Turn the streetlights off?Maybe seniors shouldn't get all the medical care they need to live, just some of it. No? Maybe the government shouldn't run schools or hospitals. No?Well, then you need to be picking other stuff if you want spending down. There's almost no government "waste." The government is already far more efficient than any private corporation has ever been.Of course, why you want to pare back government spending in the middle of a recession is beyond me. I can't imagine anything more stupid than that.

No just cut military funds you will have more than enough to spare and cover your debt.Though this would bancrupt lots of ware oriantated companies in the us, in the long run it is the best you can do to keep the standard you are used to.
No country can have a ware on an average of 20 years and not feel the strain.

What colour is the sky in your world? This from the white house,source Ceasing Checks to the Deceased | whitehouse.govEdited by Dogmafood, : No reason given.

Dogmafood responds to crashfrog:

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There's almost no government "waste." The government is already far more efficient than any private corporation has ever been.

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What colour is the sky in your world? This from the white house,

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Whether the budget is in surplus or in deficit, we cannot tolerate the wasting of taxpayer dollars — and there are few more egregious examples of waste than improper payments. These are payments made by the government to the wrong person, at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount, and last year, they totaled approximately $110 billion.

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Um, why does the latter statement contradict the former? The fact that there are errors in the governmental system does not mean that private industry does any better. Just because the system isn't perfect doesn't mean it isn't better.Don't you find it very interesting that the same things that happened in the 20s that led to the Great Depression in the 30s were duplicated in the 00s and led to the second depression we're seeing right now?So why on earth would anybody want to repeat the mistake of 1937?Have we learned nothing from history?

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

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Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can use mine.

Because it does. I didn't say any of those things. I was responding to the idea that there is no waste in government and that the US gov't (I presume) is more efficient than any corporation has every been. Corporations are often the embodiment of ruthless efficiency.I guess the question is efficient at what. I see the idea that any money a government spends inside the economy is not wasted but that is a skewed perception. My understanding of global economics is marginal at best. I would say that the problems boil down to greed and ego. It is going to take one mother of an economic policy to slay them dragons.

I take it that you are not very familiar with the amount of waste that goes on in private business.

Corporations are the embodiment of waste. Profit is waste. Obscene CEO salaries are waste. Corporate-sponsored coke and hooker parties - see Enron at the height of the California energy scandal - are waste.For-profit corporations are incredibly wasteful. That they're very good at promoting efficiency in one area simply to have more to waste on executive bonuses is immaterial.

I hope you can provide some rational explanation for this comment.At the moment I can't think of any justification for such a co-joining of terms.

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Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.

I don't understand how it's not obvious. What purpose does profit serve the business? Any money they're keeping as profit is money they can't invest in the business.Under conditions of maximal competition, businesses make little to no profit. That's because profit is waste - taking profit does nothing to expand the business, expand revenue, expand customers, or anything. Profit has absolutely no business purpose, which is why it's what businesses cut into when they have to outcompete the other guy.

Sure there is lots of waste in private industry. Those industries that waste too much soon go out of business because it is unsustainable. How many businesses can you show me that run a deficit like the government and survive?Granted, the function of government is not to turn a profit. The function of government is to maintain an environment in which others may turn a profit.

What? Where do you suggest the money that they do invest in the business comes from? Operating budgets? How is R & D funded? What does Bill Gates do with his profits?Isn't getting more out than you put in the whole idea of an economy?A slowly growing economy has brought us out of the dark ages and given us all the wonderful benefits that we enjoy today. I see the problem that the economy can not grow endlessly in a closed system with finite resources. Unrestricted population growth will be our downfall. Consuming for consumption's sake is the cancer.

No, they don't. And waste is sustainable, as long as profits are sufficient to pay for it.Most small businesses are fairly efficient. As a business becomes larger, it depends more and more on a bureaucracy, and that's where you often find the bumbling incompetence that leads to waste. You are confusing waste with deficits. They are not the same thing at all.I seem to recall that Amazon lost a lot of money for its first few years of operation, but it was run fairly efficiently - not too much waste. You will find a lot of waste in profitable businesses, because they have enough profits that they don't feel much pressure to cut down on the waste. And government at present is failing to do that, because taxes are too low to pay for the maintaining of the environment. We have a lot of infrastructure problems due to postponed maintenance.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

Businesses are owned by people.That "useless" profit you dislike so much goes to those people. They can be owners or stockholders, and it amounts to the same thing.Those people might actually do something with that profit, like pay bills, send their kids to school, or invest in other businesses.If you are going to try to take the profit out of business and other parts of human endeavor you end up with the old "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" and that is absolutely contrary to human nature, which is why it always fails.

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Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.