Question:
To end this 'recession' we have to do something drastic. Can we do that?
Noah H
2011-05-26 11:00:01 UTC
800 billion borrowed dollars for our military? Stupidly low taxes for 'the rich' and the trans national corporations? No let up in our paying top dollar for oil....even domestically produced oil? Drastic plan: Cut the military by 1/2. Get entirely out of the middle east. Keep raising the CAFE Standards. Transfer army personnel to the Coast Guard to patrol our borders. (CG is under Homeland Security these days so it would be legal.) Begin a massive effort to produce energy via wind and solar with domestically produced equipment. The reduced 'defense plants' can be converted to this kind of manufacture as we converted civilian production to military production in WW2 Japan plans on retrofitting a million buildings with solar to replace their blown out nuke plants...so can we. Rebuild our entire physical infrastructure..sewers, water, electrical grids, bridges etc. Millions of jobs and decades of honest work. The devils' in the details, but let's be 'Americans'...get the job done!
Eleven answers:
MikeGolf
2011-05-26 11:37:04 UTC
Won't do any good and wil cause even more problems.



First of all - if you move US troops out of the Middle East then a major regional war will happen shortly thereafter which will result in oil exports from the Persian Gulf getting cut off.



Cutting the military by 1/2 is a dumb idea unless you want to decided what capabilities you want to cut and why consequences you are willing to accept (such as: "no more ability to rescue US citizens captured by Somali parites.")



Next CAFE standards are purely arbitrary and will not do any good. Instead we should allow market forces to drive the technological innovation that created hybrid vehicles and will eventually allow us to convert to electric (remember that the technology for the practical wide use of electric vehicles does not exist and some places - such as California does not have the energy infrastructure necessary for widespread use of electric vehicles.)



Wind and solar power are non-starters for the simple reason that electricity produced from these sources costs more than the consumer can afford. In addition - these are not reliable power sources and tend not to be working at the exact times you need electricity the most. These things are promoted by people with political connections who are getting rich off of the government subsidies to build these things.



Expensive energy means that _everything_ else becomes more expensive. This means that there will be less money availible for all those infrastructure projects you mention.



When you think energy you have to pay close attention to the cost at the meter. If you ignore the costs of producing the electricity then we can run into a situation where people cannot afford to heat thier homes and companies cannot afford to operate in the US.



A much better plan would be to go with nuclear power. This is known technology and the recent accident in Japan has demonstrated that even the 'second worst nuclear disaster in history' did not really have that much effect on the environment and did not kill anybody. This is despite being hit by an earthquake that was 5 times more powerful than it was designed for and a tsunami that was twice as high as it was designed for. And BTW - remember that this was also an obsolete reactor design that was not up to current reactor safety standards.



Our future is way too important for us to risk it all on alternative energy - especialy given alternative energy's 100% perfect track record of never performing as claimed. (The new wind farms in Great Britian are only producing 35% of the electricity as was claimed when they were proposed - and there is no way to correct this because the proponents wildly exxagarated the amount of 'usable' wind in the area.)
2016-04-14 06:17:31 UTC
They need to cut government spending, and cut taxes. The private sector needs to get bigger, the government needs to get smaller. I agree that we will need a deep recession at some point to get out of this. There is no reason they couldn't start moving in the direction of smaller government and lower taxes. That shouldn't cause a deep recession, it would just transfer wealth from the government to the private sector.
FozzieBear
2011-05-26 11:07:15 UTC
"Stupidly low taxes" on the wealthy? You do realize that most of them are paying HALF of their income to taxes, right? Exactly what would be enough for you? How much money do you need to steal from productive people to be happy?



If the "evil oil companies" decided to run at ZERO profit, you realize the price of gas would come down by about 10 cents a gallon, right? If the government stopped taxing gasoline, it would come down by about $1.50/gallon.



Wind and solar energy suck. What happens on cloudy days when the wind isn't blowing? Where do you expect the energy to come from? You do know that the wacko environmentalists are also against wind and solar. The windmills are ugly and kill birds, and the solar panels block sun to the plants.



If we reduce our defenses and military, energy will be our LAST concern. Do you really think that, without our military, we would remain free? If the world is so calm and safe, why do we need police and locks on our doors? Why not just leave the bank vaults open all night? No one will come in and steal money, right? They only try to break in because we lock them out and they find that insulting.



Where would the money come from to pay for all the infrastructure? Are you going to work for free to make America better? Are you going to donate your savings to pay for the materials? Oh...I'll bet you don't have any savings. You libs never do.



.
2011-05-26 11:10:49 UTC
Hate to break it to you, Noah, but none of that has anything to do with the recession and all it will do is put even deeper into a crushing debt that even now may have sunk the United States into a position on par with a third world nation.



Sorry, Noah, but never in the history of the world has a government EVER been the engine that drives an economy or a nation's prosperity. All you're doing is spending and spending doesn't generate revenue.



The solution is, in fact, to reduce the size of government and to turn our massive private sector industrial complex loose on the world. Unfortunately, your approach would suppress that sector and sap the life out of it. Just as unfortunately, your President seems to agree with your approach which may be one of the main reasons that even three years into his Presidency, we're no closer to recovery.
U.n.c.l.e Sam
2011-05-26 11:16:59 UTC
Or just get Obama to try and persuade us to buy things excessively we don't need.



America is built on consumerism. If there is no demand for our products. Then we go through cycles of regular boom and bust.



p.s How come America hasn't got a motorcycle industry.. Harley Davidson is not world-wide like kawasaki or Yamaha or anything.



Just a thought...!
2011-05-26 11:03:56 UTC
lol so your plan is cut the military, then ask them to do more. Put more hurldes in front of the auto industry that we just bailed out and embrace energy sources that couldnt possible meet our energy needs at a great expense?



Are you on drugs?
2011-05-26 11:17:02 UTC
How about cutting 14 trillion in spending next ten years .
?
2011-05-26 11:21:18 UTC
Let's close the borders first. Nothing will work as long as it's a free for all for everyone who hold their hand out.
Grillparzer
2011-05-26 11:03:03 UTC
Or we could just get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop bombing Libya.
Tony
2011-05-26 11:03:29 UTC
something drastic... In other words you want a communist state where the government controls everything?
2011-05-26 11:07:33 UTC
that is the most treasonous rant I've read today


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