Massive Internet Security Vulnerability

[Laethaka]

"And the economy limps along for years instead of taking very hard medicine and purging those who failed the system quickly."
I thought most of the bailouts were conditional on the banks releasing most of their former directors? Or they were kicked out anyway for obvious reasons? I'm too technologically crippled to look this stuff up. But I don't think the Great Depression was agreed to have many positive effects (except a lot of good movies), especially by its survivors.

The debt terrifies me too. But it's not only Washington's fault. If you ask 100 American voters what programs definitely should NOT be cut you'll get 70 different answers. I'd like to jack up capital-gains taxes and gouge defense spending, but another guy might want to cut Medicare and send home my Peace Corps division tomorrow. Can you imagine the mess in an even bigger democracy like India?

[Morreion]

Oh there's no doubt that democracy is messy. But without limits like having to balance the budget, it's doomed. The Constitution held things in check for a long time, but now the government (particularly the feds) can do just about anything they want, and it's been a disaster.

Ultimately, it comes down to huge numbers of the population not having skin in the game. when half the population pays a trivial amount of income taxes and is fine with voting for those who do pay to pay more and more for things the non-payers want, that's not a sustainable system. I'm fine for people deciding how much they want to tax themselves, because then they are paying their own way. And remember, we are borrowing much of the money we spend- 17 trillion in the hole and counting. The interest on the debt alone costs us hundreds of billions per year.

One of my favorite quotes sums it all up:

“The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.”
― Frédéric Bastiat

And politicians are making life-long lucrative careers by shuffling that money around, from one pocket to another, while we get closer to economic insolvency.

[Regolyth]

Apr 24, 2014 12:11:34 GMT -5 Morreion said:

And remember, we are borrowing much of the money we spend- 17 trillion in the hole and counting. The interest on the debt alone costs us hundreds of billions per year.

It's ridiculous to think that I can control my spending, pay my bills on time and manage my affairs, but our government can't. When I can't afford something, I don't buy it. I don't go out and get a loan, or print more money, to get what I want. Yet when they overspend, it's everyone else who has to shoulder the cost. Again, it becomes very vexing.