Wealth confiscation here in the US?

[fairlaker]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

If you had and argument to make you would. Therefore I conclude you do not.

Conclude whatever you like. If you want tutoring however, my rates start at $300 an hour. Maybe round up a few other know-nothings and you can split the cost.

Originally Posted by jimhcom

NO inflation? If inflation was measured the same way that it was back in 1990, the inflation rate would be about 5 percent right now.

You can take that goofball claim back to the mothership and ask them to explain what they think has changed in the measurement of CPI that shouldn't have since 1990. Simple fact: There is very low inflation in the economy at the present time, and that is expected to continue as a dominant theme going forward.

Originally Posted by jimhcom

we are expected to believe that the inflation rate is hovering around 2 percent. Well, anyone that goes to the supermarket or fills up their vehicle with gasoline knows that prices are going up a lot faster than that.

Believe it or not, the thousands of experts available to BLS do this job a lot better than you and your simpletonian personal anecdotes will ever manage.

w

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Again with the fantasy statistics. The true rate of unemployment is 16% not 7% and furthermore the people who were employed in Reagans time had real jobs, not Mc jobs and greeters at Wal-Mart.
Things are much worse now than in the 80's.

Pathetic. U-6 did not exist yet in Reagan's day. Lucky for him. Meanwhile, U-3 has alays been the standard unemployment rate. To be counted as unemployed, you must be out of work, be willing and available to work, and have taken some active step to look for work.

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Why would the government want to pay down debt? Gee I don’t know, maybe because it is rapidly reaching the point where they will not be able to service it.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! This Just In: We are having exactly NO DIFFICULTY WHATSOEVER in servicing the debt. We don't even bother to appropriate money to redeem notes that are maturing. We know full well that most borrowers simply want to roll over their maturing issues into new ones, and that the huge volumes of people and cash clamoring to invest in our debt will more than easily allow us make any other necessary payments. We could pay the interest from borrowing as well, but we choose not to. There actually is an appropriation for that.

Originally Posted by jimhcom

In any case you are a waste of my time...

That part might be true, but I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next guy, so do keep letting me know just how you think things work around here. It's a hoot!

[MTAtech]

Fairlaker, tried to rep you for a wonderful post but I am out of rep bullets for you.

The idea is common on the right, which deals with inconvenient facts by claiming the data is manipulated. The reality is, of course, that the CPI is a weighted index of many, many items. The possibility that butter, which represents a tiny percent of a family's budget, rose in price doesn't outweigh things like housing and heating fuel, which are stable. Gasoline, apart from what jimhcom asserted, is lower now.

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by MTAtech

Fairlaker, tried to rep you for a wonderful post but I am out of rep bullets for you.

The idea is common on the right, which deals with inconvenient facts by claiming the data is manipulated. The reality is, of course, that the CPI is a weighted index of many, many items. The possibility that butter, which represents a tiny percent of a family's budget, rose in price doesn't outweigh things like housing and heating fuel, which are stable. Gasoline, apart from what jimhcom asserted, is lower now.

The typical turkey dinner this season will cost 44 cents less than last year.

Is Thanksgiving dinner cheaper than 2012? | Hays Post

[noneofyourbusiness]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Returning to Clinton tax rates would not even slow the rate of increase of the debt. The debt has doubled in the last 8 years and the rate of increase is accelerating.
Also increasing tax rates takes money directly from the economy which lowers both GDP and tax revenue.

Even the confiscation of all the wealth of the top 1% of the country would not bring the debt back to a serviceable level.

The only answer like it or not is wealth confiscation on a mass scale.

You want to balance the budget? Try making new revenue by inflating wages. Upping the minimum wage will change the ratio of debt to income if done far enough.

The dead weight loss can be offset by printing money and putting it in the hands of the workers. QE III is just putting money into the hands that already have to much money.

If you want solvency then hyperinflation driven with the minimum wage law is the only way to go.

The alternative is wealth confiscation by direct government action.