How to Pay Off the National Debt

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After the Tea-Qaeda economic terrorist attack scheduled for 8/3/11 the US will have its credit rating downgraded and we'll be forced to default (whether congress wants to or not).

China already owns Texas. Next month, they'll simply repossess it...

Convert your dollars to yuan while you still can.

ah, they're just trying to get their pictures in the newspapers. That's all that this is about.

Another point I'd like to make about buying illicit mustard agent vs. manufacturing it - the manufacturing environment required to transfer it safely between containers is actually more demanding than the manufacturing environment required to manufacture it.

And, in fact, it's so easy to make that it makes the most sense to mix it right inside the delivery device. Safer that way.

It's easier, cheaper, and safer to mix it directly in the container that will be installed in the warhead than it is to buy it from iraq or syria and try to transfer it from a large container into a small one.

Not without a world war which they will lose, by the way.

ruveyn

Assuming you didn't mean that as sarcasm or a joke....

It hasn't worked SINCE FDR.

In WWII, wartime production was domestic. It put us to work, it got things going, it culled the workforce (how many men died in WWII). After 9/11 we probably spent more on Iraq and Afghanistan. While US companies got the contracts, a lot of stuff is imported, and we didn't start up factories or switch over production lines. The economic impact of these wars actually cost Americans their jobs.

If we start a war with Iran, it will be a disaster...economically and otherwise.

Not if we win.

ruveyn

How about stop adding to it and start paying it off? That's the only way to pay off any debt.

We do make regular payments.

I advocate reducing our expenditures by 2 foreign wars.

How about useless stimulus packages as well, not printing up yet more US currency for a few years, and not having either the campaigns of the republicans or democrats be financed by taxpayers, reducing the financial aid to colleges so as to encourage a decrease in the over-inflated cost of college education ($2,000 a class is absurd, especially for classes without labs), reducing laws that discourage manufacturing and industry in the US (and I mean laws regarding fees and heavy taxation, not worker conditions), decrease in pay to every politician so that they enjoy minimum wage equivalency, etc.

Yeah, lets do exactly what put the "Great" in "The Great Depression".



I'm under the impression that taxpayer funding of campaigns is a pretty tiny part of the budget. Provide a source if I'm wrong.



I think deeper analysis is needed here. I think we need to regulate the snot out of higher education to prevent businesses from selling worthless degrees that are bankrolled in part by the federal government.

I have a friend who operates a state university spectroscopy lab, for a chemistry department. He operates and maintains several million dollars worth of equipment that needs regular maintenance and is routinely damaged by students and professors alike, requiring expensive repairs. I don't know what the lab fees are like at his school, but i doubt they are spending them on wine and cheese events.

If anything, there should be more government funding of degrees that are worth more than the paper they are printed on.

What we should have less of is people getting grants to major in things that won't get them a job.

Speaking as a man who was fed and clothed by a man with a PhD in English, I say the world needs less English majors. If you can pay for it, fine, but i don't see the object in subsidizing it.




I'm curious which laws you mean.

The way i see it, there are two things that would greatly increase manufacturing in the USA:

1: Weaker dollar. A weaker dollar absolutely increases foreign demand for products.

2: Slap some sense into financial analysts who don't like businesses that have to turn things + knowhow + labor into other things which they then exchange for money. These guys only like businesses that create wealth out of thin air, because that's "neater" or something. Banks in the USA are skittish about manufacturing in general. It's moronic. Ask anyone who has ever tried to manufacture anything on a medium scale.



Their salary isn't that big of a deal, actually. Sure it's money, but generally the salary they pull down as a politician is less than what they could pull down as an executive.

Being a power broker, on the other hand, brings in a lot of money and opportunity that doesn't show up on the pay stub.

And outside of the context of the post I replied to you would not understand that I am against the wasteful stimulus packages and government instituted printing of money without backing. The more supply of funny money the funnier it gets, and that's no laughing matter.





It's minuscule compared to other budget items, but by eliminating funding to the current major parties would place third parties on closer to equal footing. Outside of adopting the Australian ballot system this would be a way to allow for more than just RINOs and DINOs to have a chance at winning elections. Less of the current rotting parties getting taxpayer financed marketing means at least somewhat more of a chance that some people who might have a clue what they'd be doing could be elected.



Better regulations, and actual analysis of the textbooks they use. Feynman had done a report back in 1962 even about how the California board of education was merely "judging books by their cover", particularly in regard to "New Math" which started kids off with axiomatic set theory rather than arithmetic, leading to kids who knew how basic math worked but not how to perform even simple mathematical operations. Textbooks need to actually be examined, perhaps with a grain of that rare quality ironically named "common sense".

But I maintain this: colleges will continue to raise their prices so long as government subsidization increases to match it. Reduce government funding, reduce the cost of college education - and by that means make college more accessible to more people. I can buy a textbook for $5 to $100 and take my time to learn it completely, do all the homework, etc, or I can pay $1,100 to $3,000 to study the same textbook partially, do part of the homework, and go on to the next ones due to arbitrary deadlines. I would rather waste less money for my education, and so long as the piece of paper is worth more than the degree I might as well learn autodidactically like such people as Nathanial Bowditch and Michael Faraday anyway.

As for spectroscopy, it is still possible to get some of the lesser priced equipment. A spectroscope, light source, heat source, etc. As long as one has taught themselves the theory behind spectroscopic analysis they will still be able to do a lot regardless of not having millions of dollars for a massive laboratory. I've seen a spectroscope available for $9, a burette for $15, most other glassware for less than $10, etc. A person could make a laboratory reminiscent of the 1950's for less than the cost of a single chemistry class. The theoretical knowledge they can gain from textbooks at used bookstores or college book stores if they want to waste a lot of money.



Well, a weaker dollar is certainly what we're headed for. However, off-shoring of manufacturing is firmly in place and not likely to be moved while everything except Wal-Fart is decomposing. Would someone else talk about the effects of over-regulation upon US industry?



Yes, but they should not be allowed to be comfortable when the laws they pass have negative effects from which they are insulated. Being required to live on a minimum wage would discourage people from becoming career politicians.

First of all the United States should abolish the Federal Reserve, take control of its own money and charge zero percent interest. Second Jubilee laws should be imposed that will effectively cancel the debt through automatic bankruptcy so we can have a fresh start.

Although you are a new member as of this year past Feburary 11th, and thus this is probably some sort of game of words for you and your friends reading this, I would actually agree with the second statement you made in this post: having a Year of Jubilee, a year when all debts are canceled every few decades, would be a good thing. Especially considering the inheritance of debts. As of interest, I would consider it that any interest ought to be simple interest and not exponential interest. Exponential interest and all so many endless payment plans are part of the reason for so many people getting into debt that they cannot get out of. Additionally, it ought to be simpler to pay off the principal of loans rather than guarded against by umpteen quadrillion policies.

And just what would your currency be worth on the day that you do that? Who in their right mind would buy up US dollars? Hong Kong, Bermuda and a host of other small island economies would shed their US dollar pegs faster than you can say, "lead balloon." You would find yourself in the trading position of the USSR, where your currency is useless outside of a closed circle of nations.

Even if you could establish a commoditized currency, it would take you decades to shelter away enough to underwrite the scale currency required to fuel an economy the size of yours.

The day that you do that is the day that you will have to start paying for your oil imports in Canadian dollars and Euros.

Whether or not a stimulus is wasteful is largely a matter of whether it pumps money into your own district.

US currency is backed by treasury bills. It works, and it works better than tying your currency to a shiny rock.




It works the other way around.

Government campaign funds help 3rd parties vastly more than they help the elephant and jackass.

Unfortunately they don't help anyone very much. I do not believe that we will see a viable 3rd party presidential race. Ever.

We do use australian balloting in the USA. What specifically do you mean?



College textbooks are indeed a racket. The real racket is where professors write and publish their own textbook and then require it. The smart ones update it every year, too.

I don't know much about the costs of running colleges, but i suspect that the greatest way to reduce overall costs is to reduce enrollment. The idea that everyone should have a 4-year or longer degree is preposterous.



You're forgetting that the objective of advanced science education is not only to teach theoretical knowledge but to teach current research and industrial techniques.

There are universities that have multi-million-dollar semiconductor fabrication facilities strictly because nearby semiconductor manufacturers subsidized them so that the university could produce highly skilled workers for them.

The lab my friend operates for his university is funded partially by a local research institute that does a lot of government work - and in fact my friend spends some of his lab time running spectra for government contractors.

You may see a spectromoter listed for $9 but there is a good chance that it does not work. Also no chance that it is a 300mhz Varian NMR scope.



The dollar has weakened substantially over the last 4 years, and this weakening is credited with the increase in manufacturing exports over the last 4 years.



You misunderstand. The really evil ones would do the job for free - because the position of power allows them to make gobs of money on the side.

Take the governor of Florida, for example. Legally his wife owns the businesses that have benefitted so vastly from his policies.

They are career politicians because they use the power for financial gain. The salary is just walking around money.

Actually imposing Jubilee laws or automatic bankruptcy would improve the credit rating of the United States.The reason why our credit is so bad is because we are overextended. Therefore a fresh start would improve our credit rating. Zero interest loans would apply to our money that is made available to US citizens. If foreign countries want to lend us money it would be reasonable to expect to pay these countries interest. Jubilee bankruptcy laws are the moral equivalent of emancipation from slavery.