Comments on: Stimulated yet?

By: John

John — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:09:33 +0000

The government doesn’t “borrow” from China. The government borrows from the Federal Reserve. The government sells bonds (US Treasuries) to China and everyone else and uses the money to operate. The bonds are a liability…a future obligation to pay that the government cannot honor.

The Federal Reserve didn’t come about until 1913. The United States operated for 100 years before that. How did they do that, if the current system is the only way to operate?

I’m not saying one system is better than the other. I’m saying that the current system is broken and does not work. This should be obvious. Furthering it, continuing it, because nobody is willing to seriously consider valid (but difficult) alternatives is absurd.

The government continues to grow. The government continues to incur a national debt that we can never, ever repay. Our children’s children’s children will never, ever be able to repay it. If a person or a corporation were behaving the way the government is behaving, they’d be in jail for fraud or bankrupt and out of business, or both. The government shouldn’t be an exception…on the contrary, it should be the example, not a laughingstock or caricature.

By: matt

matt — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:59:53 +0000

yes the government does use what we the people give them to pay debt. but it that debt borrowed form china to operate, not exactly creating it out of thin air. (though i do know and understand that out money has no value other than what the government say it does, i.e. not backed by any commodity or gold.)

so should the government just make the money it needs to operate out of thin air? should it barrow more from china? or should it use taxes from the american worker? should it tax the states? the fed has to operate. (at least portions of it.) so how does it pay it’s workers? make money out of thin air? again i really do want to know where you’re going with this and pleas don’t think i’m trying to piss you off, i’m not. you have an intresting stance and i want to hear what you have to say.

By: John

John — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:56:06 +0000

The government doesn’t get their money from us to operate. The government uses income tax revenue to pay debt.

Injecting a trillion dollars into the economy means people will spend it, right? Well, if people spend it, then someone else will receive it, right? And then what? Those who receive it will pay taxes on it, right? So say my company gets $1 million from the government. I use that million to hire people, buy products, and buy services while running my business. Well, all of the money I spend and pay people has to be declared as income, right? And those people and companies in turn are going to pay taxes on that revenue, right?

So we have the government creating money out of thin air, giving that money to people as a “stimulus”, and then expecting the people who benefit from that stimulus to pay taxes with REAL money (the product of work) on FAKE money (money that was generated by the government by moving some numbers around on an Excel spreadsheet). And then the government claims it needs that revenue to operate? Insanity.

By: matt

matt — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:46:54 +0000

ok, say the government does that. (i’d love it personally) so where does it get the funds to operate? the fbi and cia get their money from the fed. the fed gets it’s money from us. i’m curious to see where you go with the idea.