On a Modest Proposal

[Latrinsorm]

In June I posed a question: "Is this the end of capitalism, or the end of America?" My fellow Republicans as always have the answer:





And...

"Sen. David Perdue of Georgia said Tuesday that he supports increasing stimulus checks to $2,000 ... Sen. Kelly Loeffler indicated again Tuesday that she, too, supports increasing the direct payments."

If Senators Perdue and Loeffler get their way, we'll have spent $4,000,000,000,000 in direct stimulus against the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 alone.
Without raising taxes - we actually lowered a few.
Without cutting a dime of other spending - that actually went up a little too.
Without causing hyperinflation - it's normally 2% and is currently at only 1%.

We just paid for it.

And it worked! In the face of a global crisis, we were able to prevent the worst of the damage just by doing this:



It worked, and we all saw it work.
You can't unring toothpaste.
You can't put the horse back in the bag.

So when we face the global crisis of climate change, how can we meaningfully balk at a $5,000,000,000,000 yearly price tag?

Why could we magick $4 trillion into existence but not $5 trillion?
Did we run out of spell points?
Did we lose the wizard hat and/or robe?
Perhaps our wand was inadvertently cracked by a fellow mage?

.

No, the true magick lies within us. If we only believe enough, we can summon it again. And I propose that as the world turns, the generations loyal to what they think of as "capitalism" will continue to be replaced, and those Americans yet to come into the majority witnessed our power first hand, inoculated long before they could be indoctrinated.

It's only a matter of time.

[Parkbandit]

[Viekn]

Why could we magick $4 trillion into existence but not $5 trillion?
Did we run out of spell points?
Did we lose the wizard hat and/or robe?
Perhaps our wand was inadvertently cracked by a fellow mage?.

The US issued more bonds to pay for the stimulus, essentially borrowing that money that will have to be paid back in the future. We didn't "magic" anything. I agree that it's worth doing because our economy is based mostly on people A) having the money to spend and B) actually spending the money. But there are actual mechanisms in play that create that money and it does have financial ramifications.

[Parkbandit]

So when we face the global crisis of climate change,

how can we meaningfully balk at a $5,000,000,000,000 yearly price tag?

The US TOTAL tax revenue in 2019 (prior to the covid) was 3.5 trillion.

How long do you believe we can go spending an extra 5 trillion dollars a year... or should we just stop spending all money and address this climate "crisis"?

[Tgo01]

The US issued more bonds to pay for the stimulus, essentially borrowing that money that will have to be paid back in the future. We didn't "magic" anything. I agree that it's worth doing because our economy is based mostly on people A) having the money to spend and B) actually spending the money. But there are actual mechanisms in play that create that money and it does have financial ramifications.

It's Latrinsorm. He escaped the Politics folder is and talking his nonsense in the Off-Topic folder because he thinks he will be taken more seriously here. So far he's failing.

[Parkbandit]

It's Latrinsorm. He escaped the Politics folder is and talking his nonsense in the Off-Topic folder because he thinks he will be taken more seriously here. So far he's failing.

On This We All Agree.

[Latrinsorm]

The US issued more bonds to pay for the stimulus, essentially borrowing that money that will have to be paid back in the future. We didn't "magic" anything. I agree that it's worth doing because our economy is based mostly on people A) having the money to spend and B) actually spending the money. But there are actual mechanisms in play that create that money and it does have financial ramifications.

Issued more bonds that were purchased by the Federal Reserve, which is to say the US borrowed money from itself, which is to say magick with a capital k. (Well... lowercase, but you get the idea.)

And the specific ramification of this is alleged to be runaway inflation. Didn't happen this year. Didn't in fact happen in any year since the Fed began QE in 2008 - we haven't even hit 4% in thirty years. Where's the beef?

[Latrinsorm]

The US TOTAL tax revenue in 2019 (prior to the covid) was 3.5 trillion.

How long do you believe we can go spending an extra 5 trillion dollars a year... or should we just stop spending all money and address this climate "crisis"?

Ten years.
Five years.
Twenty years.
I don't know.
Neither do you.
Perhaps, nobody knows.

But we know for sure we did it one year with absolutely no inflationary problems.
I know it.
You know it.
For sure, everybody knows it.

Our 1800s economic system didn't end because a bunch of professors agreed it should.
It ended because it failed in a time of great crisis, we tried something else (the Fed, FDR, etc.)...
...and it worked.

At the end of the day, when the rubber meets the road, the bottom line when all's said and done is results.

[Latrinsorm]

It's Latrinsorm. He escaped the Politics folder is and talking his nonsense in the Off-Topic folder because he thinks he will be taken more seriously here. So far he's failing.

[Parkbandit]

Ten years.
Five years.
Twenty years.
I don't know.
Neither do you.
Perhaps, nobody knows.

But we know for sure we did it one year with absolutely no inflationary problems.
I know it.
You know it.
For sure, everybody knows it.

Our 1800s economic system didn't end because a bunch of professors agreed it should.
It ended because it failed in a time of great crisis, we tried something else (the Fed, FDR, etc.)...
...and it worked.

At the end of the day, when the rubber meets the road, the bottom line when all's said and done is results.

So, according to your "math", you are ok spending an additional 5 trillion dollars a year for 10 years. That's 50 trillion dollars on top of our current 30 trillion dollar deficit... so 80 trillion dollars.

What's the end goal?

To save the planet? Is this like the war on drugs or the war on poverty?

Or is it to just destroy the current economy and bring about your idea of utopia.. socialism/communism?