Quote Originally Posted by sasvermont View Post
As far as Japan and it's problems years ago, well, from what I have read, they didn't put enough money into their system soon enough and long enough, thus taking 10 years to dig out of their recession.
My opinion is that its not about the amount of money put into the system, but how the money is put into the system. Creating money out of thin air and then using it for things that do not create new products and/or services is a bad idea. Because if no new products/services are created with the "stimulus" you get massive inflation after the stimulus money is spent. Because all that "new" money ends up chasing the same amount of products and services. Its basic economics.

Better to let the economy (read: citizens and business) simply keep more of the money they already have via lower tax rates. This allows the economy to have REAL growth. This method is also good for government. Because as new wealth is earned, rather than created, government gets more revenue taxing it at the lower rate. It is a time proven method.

Capitalism is by no means perfect, because you will always have greedy people abusing it. But as situations like Bernie Madoff show, what goes around, comes around.

The recession (if you will) right now is WORLD wide, not just the USA. We have nothing to compare it to, as far as I know.
The depression of the 1930's was a global event. It was made worse by massive government interference. We should have learned from how rapidly the recession/mini depression of 1920 was overcome. Government simply let the market right itself.


I think the greed factor is/was our worst enemy and in some strange way, we are all guilty of wanting to earn more money on our investments, own bigger homes, drive faster gas guzzling cars, having babies we cannot now afford to educate and in some cases, feed. But we didn't sign up for the scheme part of it and we aren't getting a bonus for participating. We are getting the debt to bail out this mess. I suppose, we share that with the creeps at the top of the scheme chain, as they too, will be asked to pay taxes - maybe!
I do not think there is anything wrong with wanting a better life for you and your family. I mean, it IS the promise of this nation. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. We just need to understand that we are NOT promised equal results.

Equal people are not free and free people are never equal.

I know it is difficult for some to understand this. We as a people are caring, compassionate and kind. We do not like to see people suffer. But in a free society, those are the breaks. Of course there needs to be a method to provide for people who are truly in need. But only enough to renew their OWN ability to pursue their OWN happiness. A hand up, rather than a hand out.