Economy

Why don't we just take the debt crisis, and PUSH IT SOMEWHERE ELSE?

When I saw this week's prompt, my heart just sank. If there is one thing that shoots clear over my head, its economics. But I'll give it my best shot.

Quite honestly, some of the most reasonable solutions I can come up with include:

1. The idea to tax the wealthy.
2. All members of Congress and the Senate take a pay cut for a few years.
3. Not to mention the billions of dollars our government spends on air, water, and roadways. If everyone who owned a vehicle that had an impact on the environment purchased some sticker or special license (renewed every year for approximately $20) it would most certainly take us our of our deficit.
4. Employing people for public works projects, such as building and restoring bridges.
5. Promote businesses in the U.S. by establishing a program that supports U.S. companies with U.S. employees. We need to create more jobs.
6. Establish a PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE MEDICAL CARE SYSTEM. NOT a national health care system.
7. We could even go as far as legalizing marijuana and taxing the heck out of it.

These are the most simplified ideas I could come up with. I honestly do not have the knowledge base to provide much further justification.

Collaboration with APUSH? (i think so)

Right now in AP US history we are talking about the great depression. America is not at that point, yet. America never wants to go back to the, shall we say, "dark ages". the solution to the problem then was to pump money into the economy, to create jobs and jump start consumer spending. this to should be the approach we have today. Obama has been trying to do this, and has done it well. The great depression, by no means, was fixed in three years, it took a while for the economy to reach its fabled glory once more. Obama in the last couple of years has been following the same model as FDR, and it is working. The Keynesian economics will work,America just has to be patient and stop scolding Obama. in time the economy will jump back and the debt will once again recede.

if that doesnt work, well then let us create another world war. World War two was also a driving factor in rebooting our economy, this "war" with al-quaeda is not the massive ground assault that was world war two. im sure if we went to war with persay north korea that world war three would be upon us. if one doesnt mind a nuclear fall out then the clear road to go is to insight world war three, that should get us out of the recession.

#economyprobs

How to fix the economy? That’s a good question. If government officials can’t figure this out, I don’t understand how teenagers would be able to think of anything better. However, if I was in charge of fixing this problem, I would find small deserted islands all around the world and make them famous tourist destinations. Then, all of the extremely rich people in the world would travel to these islands and the United States would charge a ton of money to stay there. Over time, when one island gets boring, the U.S. can find another or begin to make islands. Then, people could purchase these islands and all of the money would go into paying off the U.S. debt. There are many people in this world who have more money than they know what to do with and this would be a new fun way to spend money and have fun. This would not be for everyone to experience and no tax cuts would be given to supporters of these islands, but it would be pure profit for our country (minus the cost of making the island). Is this idea realistic? Probably not. But at least it sounds like fun.

Mmmmmmm...Pie

Ahah! Here's something I can sink my teeth into.
Above you can see a chart of the discretionary spending by the federal government for 2012. Discretionary Spending is the kind that the president negotiates with Congress annually, not the kind that Congress votes into law.
Why do I care more about Discretionary Spending? Because it can be changed quickly and easily, without an act of Congress. I only have 3 suggestions.

1. See that Military Spending section? It's a hog. Cut it down to size.
   I'm not advocating a total elimination of the military budget. We still need a means of defense. But anyone seasoned in history understands that a bigger military does not guarantee a safer country. If that were the case, somebody would have conquered Switzerland and Liechtenstein a looooong time ago. And nowadays, with a global economy, that's even truer. Nobody wants to go to war with the U.S. because we are such a massive consumer that it would crush everyone's economy if we lost our vitality.
   That being said, we need to set aside enough money to protect our homeland. But NOT to occupy any other countries. That just makes us enemies. A threat like the Taliban is like a virus; it's much easier to protect yourself than it is to try to find every virus in the world and kill it.
   Speak softly and carry a big stick.
   
   
2. Fatten up the Education budget.
   Who do you think creates the next generation of defense, as well as the next generation of . . . everything? Scholars. Professionals. People who take advantage of a complete education. People talk about China's unfair monetary policy and exploitation of U.S. consumption, but guess who's thinking up all those diabolical plans to dominate Uncle Sam? China's ridiculously superior students. The U.S.'s reputation as a leader in education only extends to universities. I won't go into how we should allocate education funding, but for starters we definitely need a lot more of it. It is the ultimate intelligent investment.
   
   
3. Eliminate private-government interaction.
   This one has nothing to do with the pie chart above. I hope somebody remembers all the sins and lies I discussed in my final speech, but if you don't here's a quick explanation of why corporations and government need a restraining order.
   We are under the impression that the people we elect are working to serve us, their constituents. We vote, we join interest groups, we exercise our rights, as we should. But if at any point in time a lobbyist or corporation influences our representatives, our democracy breaks. It is no longer a democracy but a totally different kind of government--a plutocracy. As soon as we eliminate all corporate-government interaction, then our government would have no reason to spend money for anything other than the interest of the majority of people. It isn't perfect, but it's the closest to it.

It's the Economy, Stupid

Now did I just call my peers stupid? Of course not.

Americans care about the economy. In fact, they care about it so much, it's the number 2 result when you type in Google "how to fix the" - right after the red ring of death. When an entire nation is that eager and motivated to fix such a problem, who I am to not offer my five cents?

Even though I'm sure the nice folks at Washington are doing their best to forgo their differences and compromise to solve this issue, right after those men finish arguing over what the best course of action is for a woman's body.

Well, I know one thing is for certain. We can not touch the 725 billion nation defense budget. Because you know those terrorists are coming for us. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not be in the next ten years, but you can bet your sweet bippy they're coming. September 11 is just the start.

It doesn't matter if Osama is dead. It doesn't matter if al-Qaeda is in decline. It doesn't matter if it's statistically 8 times more likely for you to be killed by policemen than terrorists. We need to be protected from those dang Muslims.

So how do we fix the economy? Education cuts, of course. Our kids are smart enough as it is. Right now, America is ranked ~20th in education worldwide. There's like 196 countries in the world. We are almost in the top 10%! Take that, Nigeria! Our kids are smarter than your kids.

Don't worry, the Kentucky government has already taken the initiative on this. This year, our brilliant leader Steve Beshear is cutting 50 million dollars from the education budget to fund a creationist amusement park featuring a 500 foot by 75 foot recreation of Noah's Ark.

That is exactly what I'm talking about! Beshear has the right idea. Those stupid kids can learn how to integrate functions on their own time. My man Noah fit on his boat:
- 8 people
- 17,400 birds
- 12,000 reptiles
- 9,000 mammals
- 5,000 amphibians
- 2,000,000 insects
- a year supply of food for everyone

The amount of historical accuracy in this recreation is mind-blowing. It is important that we get our priorities straight, and celebrate what a great guy Noah was. Heck, I bet if Noah was alive today, he could fix the economy!

How do we get out of a $14 trillion debt? Honestly, I have no idea, but I know it'll take a very long time. Perhaps the tax cuts might have contributed to our debt, or maybe the spending on defense and stuff. Obviously it's easier to spend than to gain. However, perhaps if we somehow stop everything we're doing and focus on rebuilding our economy, the debt will slowly go away.

Since I know nothing about our government, my suggestions are all based on natural instinct. If I owe someone money, I would make sure to pay them back as soon as possible. I would stop all these complicated things, like tax cuts and trust funds (no idea what would happen if that did occur). Everything should be simple; we fix our budget and do one thing at a time each year, instead of splitting it up on so many different areas of concern. Our nation's birthday isn't Gemini, so we can't multitask.

Perhaps we should establish better relations with other countries, or totally annihilate them to establish dominance. But then that would just lead to other conflicts. I think we should just isolate ourselves for a while, just enough to erase half our debt or something. Basically, we need to be more independent, and stop with other affairs. While it's not morally just for us to ignore everything, we should look out for ourselves first. Then, after we're financially stable, we can help or interact with other countries. I have no idea what would happen if my plan were to occur.