utkinpol

Government can most definitely fix it all. And very fast. Just kill all possibilities for outsourcing, move all production jobs back to this country by implying huge tax hits on those who destroys local production.

AS soon as this country will continue making its own shoes, clothes, shovels, you name it - we all will prosper again. If we will continue making China rich by giving away all our jobs - we will end as it is only probably a factor of 10-20 more years to loose intellectual edge to those who got real production power.

PS. Also somebody must start to listen to what Ron Paul was saying for last, well, 10 years?

RAPID

So far not great! around 17l/100km...

993TurboS

What? You must have left out a "not" in there somewhere. Ron Paul is 100% against tariffs to protect American jobs:

http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/free-trade/

There probably are some crappy third world countries with 100% employment. The only problem being that they are all employed hunthing and gathering.

I don't want to make my own shoes.

Larry Cable

<rant>
Go do some googling and take a peek at the GDP/federal deficit numbers mapped onto presidential tenures ... some interesting facts that are currently "overlooked" shall we say...

Governments can only create jobs 3 ways:
- directly: more federal employees
- directly: federally funding projects (typically infrastructure)
- indirectly: changing taxes and regulations to stimulate private growth

its vastly understating it that global economics/fiance is a complex beast; there are no simple fixes to either the US or global economic woes at this time, they are all interlinked ... the fact the the US is China's "customer" is why the Chinese invest in the US ... its a feedback loop.

just deregulating and lowering taxes wont fix this; you could argue that deregulation (or at least a lack of it) was responsible for the recent financial crisis, I for one am glad we bailed out the banks, the alternative is too terrible to bear ...

and before we start slicing taxes and benefits etc, I'd like to see some of those tax benefits for big industry go away ... why do the oil companies need tax breaks when they have record profits, why does it take less than a day for a change (upwards) in the price of oil to be reflected at the pumps, but takes days to be reflected when they go down ...

for me deregulation is a blank cheque for the unscrupluous to make a fast buck at the expense of others, and in some cases, to get bailed out afterwards.

we get what we vote for, regardless of who is in power!

anyone care to wager who will play political and economic brinksmanship with the debt ceiling over the next 30 days or so ...
</rant>

993TurboS

Yeah, what Ron Paul said.

Tedster

Luckily my company is manufacturing medical products in the USA and we are seeing strong growth this year. I don't see any increase coming due to the new healthcare bill but it I have studied it and won't hurt us. Calls for reducing taxes further and de-regulation are made in ignorance of the real effects these policies have created or by those who unfairly benefit. Most of the tax reductions have benefitted the mega rich and powerful corporations. Corporate taxes have steadily declined yet those corporations have exported jobs. The thing trickling down on most Americans is not money. De-regulation actually hurts US manufacturers in our industry as Chinese and other exporters can ship whatever they want here.

993TurboS

It is so unfair that some fat cats get to drive Porsches when there are people in the world who don't even have a car. Can't the government do something about that injustice? I am outraged at these selfish ego maniacs driving their pretentious status symbols and destroying the environment. Can't there be a law against it?

batty

Sarcasm fail. You can still own a couple Porsches while acknowledging that historical levels of income equality aren't healthy for the republic. There is an enormous (and reasonable) middle ground between unmitigated greed and... wait for it..."socialism".

To my mind there's no reason that a bunch of mortgage derivative and credit default traders should take home 8 to 9 figures a year due to rampant deregulation yet we amazingly fight harder to protect their "earnings" while gutting teachers salaries and pinning the hardship on people who stand on their feet for 8 to 10 hours a day while at the same time cutting back on infrastructure and a whole range of services that advance the common good.

To provide one example, locally, educational institutions are stripping away long standing programs that provide assistance for the deaf and the severely hearing impaired due to budget cuts. I'm sorry, but I'd rather you tax me another 3 percent to keep those programs in place and help those in need.

993TurboS

You are free to donate as you wish. Your p-car could keep that program in place.

Let me guess, you are not a mortgage trader.

If a teacher wants to make mortgage trader money, he or she is free to choose a different career and try to create more value and not have to stand for 8 hours.

Typical.

ir_fuel

Funny that you mention this. If it weren't for the European Union regulating things we would still be paying a fortune when calling with our mobile phone from another EU country. Those regulations are the main reason prices dropped.

They are doing the same now for roaming data rates.

ir_fuel

Concerning the economy:

We are doing quite well considering the fact that we currently hold the world record of the longest number of days without a governement, and we keep on beating that record every day (and no hope in sight).

Devils Advocate

Curious, where are you, Somalia?

ir_fuel

Belgium.

Devils Advocate

Well I'd say that's a little bit better than Somalia!

Carrera GT

My guess was either California or USA -- neither having had a government in a decade or more. And both of which have fiscal policy which compares unfavorably to a drunken sailor. Yo ho, ho and a bottle of rum.