Some argue that the debt can be resolved through inflation and that we are buying infrastructure in the present and paying for it with inflated dollars. However a very small percentage of the budget is for infrastructure and notes are being redeemed with current dollars and debt is increasing so we are not paying for the infrastructure. Someday resolution will occur but we may not like the method of mitigation.
Notes being redeemed with current dollars were initially sold with more expensive "past" dollars. We benefit today from the infrastructure, R&D, military, health care, education, and all other expenditures made yesterday.
The nice thing about infrastructure investment is that it creates "residual" income. A relatively small investment enables new jobs, new revenue streams, and those jobs and streams pay out perpetually. The other part of infrastructure investment is that they don't directly create jobs; they enable the private sector to build jobs. Consider freeways, and everything they have done for american commerce. the investment in the interstate highway system alone has paid for itself thousands of times over in the revenue generated from taxpayers who rely on the transportation for their taxed commercial ventures.
In the US, the "payout" is predominantly an effective military force
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We work together every damn day. --Jon Stewart
So what you are saying is that our debt is "good" because of the declining value of the dollar.... Hmmm.. Okay... Well, then we definitely need to take care of our debt before we take on stabilizing the dollar (which is very much needed).
I don't know about you, but I really don't like the declining of the dollar because it reduces my spending power.
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"A society that puts equality ... ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom."
So what you are saying is that our debt is "good" because of the declining value of the dollar.... Hmmm.. Okay... Well, then we definitely need to take care of our debt before we take on stabilizing the dollar (which is very much needed).
I don't know about you, but I really don't like the declining of the dollar because it reduces my spending power.
Right on target! A declining dollar would be a hidden tax in this case. However RA's point is moot since we are not paying the debt. We are borrowing money to service the debt.
Right on target! A declining dollar would be a hidden tax in this case. However RA's point is moot since we are not paying the debt. We are borrowing money to service the debt.
I like to call it a "stealth tax".... It is a win win for the big government because they can continue to "borrow" and have it "work out" while printing more money too.... And as a bonus, the masses blame the EVIL CORPORATIONS for "raising prices" when really, it is just that the value of the dollar is less... Not so much that the product "costs" more..
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"A society that puts equality ... ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom."
No, what I am saying is that the argument eddie raised is false.
Money does not store value. Never has, never will. Not even when we were on the gold standard was this true. Money is the vehicle for transferring wealth, not storing it. Money is not a true asset.
The value of money is that people are willing to accept it in exchange for true assets. This is true even of gold or anything else that is used overwelmingly for currency.
As long as the value of the dollar is stable over the short term, you haven't lost your purchasing power. You may have squandered it by refusing to convert it into true assets in a timely manner, but you have not lost purchasing power due to minor inflation.
Deflation is a far more dangerous situation. Where your money, stuffed in a mattress, brings you more and more purchasing power, the economy slows down to compensate. For the same reason, minor inflation - 2% to 4%/year - tends to spur the economy.
And what I said was, you hit the report button instead of the reply button
Now THATS funny! Thanks for the laugh bro -
Now back you your conversation.
And what I said was, you hit the report button instead of the reply button
Now THATS funny! Thanks for the laugh bro -
Now back you your conversation.
Heh, I was wondering where that went.
In my defense, I sent that from the cityprofile app on my phone and those two buttons are *literally* right next to eachother. I didn't notice anything different as I was typing it out.
To clarify, the only "stealth tax" is a "tax" on putting your money in the mattress instead of putting it back to work. Money should be thought of as a hot potato. You only get burned if you hold it too long. Keep it moving, keep it changing hands, keep it driving the economy.
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We work together every damn day. --Jon Stewart
I like to call it a "stealth tax".... It is a win win for the big government because they can continue to "borrow" and have it "work out" while printing more money too.... And as a bonus, the masses blame the EVIL CORPORATIONS for "raising prices" when really, it is just that the value of the dollar is less... Not so much that the product "costs" more..
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