squiggly
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You are making the assumption that if we stop spending money, our economy will rebound to a level it's not seen since Clinton such that it would have a trajectory which would "right" us from the trajectory of being in servitude to China which we are currently in.
That is what you're not accounting for, even though you say it in your statement. (They already do own us). This isn't exactly true, but the conditions are such that without a big change it will be true (somewhere in 2050 according to Hans Rosling). This is accepted by every red blooded american economist known. It is damage already done.
You claim we should not spend more money because it will doom us to that fate. In truth, spending no money is more akin to accepting our fate--just at a later date. Our only chance to get out of the hole is to innovate, its the only place we have a chance of competing with China.
Big business would have you believe that innovations cost big bucks that can only come from money gained through tax breaks.
The reality couldn't be further from the truth. Innovations come from exceptionally smart, creative, or lucky people. Either individuals or small-to-medium sized groups of them. The do not come from corporate investment, and even if they did investing in them is in the company's best interest--taxes or not.
Because of how big businesses run in general, we are in a fiscal snafu--and now and the midst of it they want to convince you, via conservatives, that the best place to put our money is inside of big businesses, or "job creation" factories, as they would have you believe.
Let me paint a quick picture for you. 50 years from now, China--due to its superior education--has out innovated us, a country already up to its eyeballs in debt to them. What recourse do we have now. Do you think big business can get us out of that mess?
They can't. Smart people can, again.
Our greatest commodity is our intelligence. Our success as a nation is generally accepted to be owed to the fact that we were the first nation to bring education to the masses. We had a more intelligent and informed public and they were ahead of their international counterparts.
Please take me seriously when I warn you that this is no longer the case. We are now in many cases very far behind our international competition in terms of scientific competence, critical thinking, and even language comprehension.
It's deplorable.
It's as simple as the following:
1. We are on a path to being owned by China.
2. Action is the only way off that path.
3. The action it requires will, with a high degree of certainty, come at a substantial monetary cost.
If you accept 1 and 2, as most of the Western world does--number 3 follows as an absolute precondition to giving a shit about stopping number 1.
If you don't want that to happen, we need to spend money. Sitting and waiting for the inevitable is the only option left.
The scary part is this is not a fringe theory. Every respected economist in the world will tell you this. Common sense will tell you this.
Conservatives do not have an answer for this argument that makes sense--unless you believe that businesses run and operated by inferior workforces 40 years from now will be able to outcompete a country which is predicted by every human with the expertise to predict such things to be well above our productivity level by that time.
It's just not a tenable situation.
The way conservatives hoodwink people into this idea is that from a personal standpoint it makes a lot of sense. Don't spend what you don't have. That is a pearl of wisdom for an individual--it works in practice, and all of us smart folk know that its a great way to live without financial worry.
For a country, in a constantly changing and competitive world with one of the SLOWEST moving governments known to man it is not possible to just "save up" a bunch of money and pay off debts. By the time we do that, we'll be iceland.
We need to invent the next fire, the next car, the next train, airplane.
Short of that we are fucked.
For that we need a bunch more potential albert einsteins, and Fords, and wright brothers--a lot of the easy stuff has been figured out already so its going to take some real geniuses to find all of the somethings we'll need to turn our economy around.
Right now we're shelling out a couple million graduates a year now and they are, for the most part, receiving sub par education with less funding than their international competition--and they are being asked to foot the bill to the tune of 100K +.
It's not gonna work dude. They are going to wipe the floor with us if we don't re prioritize. Most of our competition is getting twice the education we do, about 200% more specialization within a field than we get, tons more hands on experience, and they are in many many many cases getting this for free.
If a company is failing, do you stop changing things and just save up your money? Hell to the no. You get in there and put some elbow grease into the thing and you probably spend all the money you have in a last ditch effort. That's how companies work.
The kicker: Mitt Romney knows this, it is EXACTLY what he did at Bain Capital. No difference whatsoever.
America is a helluva lot more like a company than your personal wallet. Don't let conservative idiocy blind you to that. The answer to the question of how to fix an economy is not save a bunch of money and give it to businesses that will be obsolete within half a century without further action from the government.
Here's the thing. I really hate that catch phrase "I did build that." or whatever, that's going around.
No.
The fuck.
You didn't.
The American government has been the keeper of the sovereignty of this nation since its inception. It won our freedom all those years ago and it protects it now. It has laid the foundation in terms of education, health, justice--without which NONE OF WHAT ANYONE ALIVE HAS BUILT would be possible.
We owe it to generations before us--who have themselves been keepers of the government--and to our own dignity to take notice of that--and to ensure that our country's government is not only strong, but well funded.
If we lose our education, the cycle falls back in on itself as stupid people make their way to D.C.--we are already starting to see this happen.
Will we fix it?
I think no, but we damn well should try.
