Skeptic Project

What's the best strategy for the current economic situation. Conservatives want to stop deficit spending, saying that it is the future generations that will have to pay for it, while liberals say that deficit spending is the best way to get people working again to kick-start the economy. Who's right?

I heard that this situation we're in currently is unique because we already have a high national debt going into this recession, and that makes deficit spending difficult, or something.

It's funny you say that, because it seems no matter how many times I tell Conservatives about Reagan's faults, they all turtle up and defend him like he's the second coming. I've heard Conservatives on the radio(And I'm not making this up) talk about getting his face put on Mt. Rushmore.

They always seem to forget about that deficit.

Reagan??!?! What about G.W. Bush? He ran up a far higher deficit, both in absolute dollars and in relative terms, than Reagan did. In fact Dubya took a budget surplus (which we had thanks to that evil "liberal" Bill Clinton) and sank it into a deficit in less than one term.

Conservatives are pro-deficit. Considering that the only president who's ever balanced a budget since the 1920s was a Democrat, I have a hard time believing conservatives are really anti-deficit. They have only pretended to be so since January 20, 2009. Hm, I forget, what happened on that day that could have made them change their position so suddenly?

Who, exactly, are we borrowing from anyway?

Wall Street financial institutions, and China.

If I'm not mistaken those are the two largest consumers of U.S. Treasury bonds. I could be wrong, though. Economics isn't my strong suit.

Spending to stimulate the economy is good, but ultimately we need to build jobs. How to do that? I say invest in education and the green sector, but what the hell do I know. After all I'm just a troll who thinks the movies are the movement.

Privatize everything, that creates jobs! It worked for Russia... right? Did it?

Domokato, here's the issue. And forgive me for not being an economist, but I'll do my best to put it as simple as I know.

Basically what Muertos said with a few things added. Spending is good, but only for the short term(Mainly to keep the economy from completely tanking). And yes, the best thing to do as always is to create jobs.

The problem? We don't produce anything anymore. We don't make anything anymore that would give us new jobs.

Here's a few small examples, and again, I'm winging it here:

In the 80's we had the computer revolution, and software infusion, with the likes Commadore, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, etc. The computer age launched, upping office jobs and products for and such for around 7-8 years. This isn't what spurred the surge in our 80's economy, but it was a very big part of it.

The 90's we had the internet and information age, which in turn fed off of the previous computer age. We created, manufactured, and sold products based off of this new technology. The problem was the technology was too young and people jumped on it too fast, inflating the value in the competitive markets for .com domains and other numerous websites(hence the dot-com bubble.) It's a lot more complicated then I put it, but that's just a dumbed down version.

2000's came the housing, and I'm sure everyone here knows this story.

Basically what we need is new/innovative products, new energy, communications, etc. We will need another technological revolution if we ever want to pull ourselves completely out of this mess. Because if we don't, then most of the jobs lost during this recession might not come back.

The US? Sure, just after you got an atheist for president.

Shortly after a small team of /b-tards with a good sense of humor and outstanding engineering skills disguised themselves as Jesus, descended from heaven with their as angel wings disguised jetpacks and told the evangelical south that to get to heaven, all they needed to do is kill themselves.

I think they'll call it Project Chargin Mah Lazer. And yes, it will happen. One year after Merola wins his Oscar for best documentary.

Googled PBB:
Wow, both "researchers" died of heart attacks, they must have been really onto something. Or have, like, high blood pressure.

"I wonder when that'll happen? "

Honestly I think there is a small chance that Obama is a closet atheist.

If people are really losing their jobs to automation and outsourcing, then the answer seems to me to be education. We should give more opportunity for these people to move up and become professionals. It seems to me like the internet is a growing and unsaturated market. You can always create a new website that people will find valuable.

Or you could innovate and start a new business. Or do research for a university.

Seems to me there's always opportunity at the leading edge (of business, science, or technology). Just those without the skills aren't in a position to seize those opportunities.

For the short term, government spending to create jobs sounds good, but in the long term technological unemployment will eventually sap the lower-middle class. They should be allowed to move up, not down. It's better for them and it's better for the rest of us because it will create a stronger economy.

Did you know George H W Bush is responsible for atomic bombs and they had robot warriors in World War II? According to Webster Tarpley, it's true!

@Special Ed:

I hope you realize the fallacy you've committed. Tarpley's odd notions of history don't have any necessary connection to his ideas we can empirically test in the here-and-now, or at least see them in operation in other countries like China. Why doesn't the U.S. have some useful project funded now to employ people and build up the nation's capital like China's high-speed rail, for example?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China

Why is that?

> I think manufacturing is vital

Agreed.

But how do you make sure people buy products made in your own country and not imports ?

Could one employ the use of local currency type solutions to lock people into buying products only made within ones own country ?