Glen Contrarian
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2013
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As you said though, as long as it stays in this country. How much of our debt is financed by foreign countries?
Military spending beyond the necessary amount. Domestic military spending provides less jobs per dollar compared to spending on infrastructure, tax cuts, and education.
http://costofwar.com/media/uploads/security_spending_primer/employment_impact.pdf
It wouldn't be any, if we had a reasonable level of taxation instead of the particularly low rates we have now.
Who and what would you like to tax? Also, how much?
Things like transportation and education can benefit the economy, but most government spending harms the economy. Things like food stamps harm the economy, but poor people benefit from them, so they aren't a total waste.
Only if you ignore the taxes required to pay for them.Wrong, if we are talking macroeconomics, foodstamps do help the economy.
Only if you ignore the taxes required to pay for them.
So, you're saying anything that is taxed does not go back into the economy? What happens to the money? Does it disintegrate into the atmosphere?
It can, yes...
Explains a lot.
If the government were to run a surplus, what do you think happens to it? It destroys private sector assets...
How so?
So, you're saying anything that is taxed does not go back into the economy? What happens to the money? Does it disintegrate into the atmosphere?
We could tax person A, and then pay person B 90% of that money to watch paint dry. The other 10% would go to the people who taxed person A and paid person B. Is it difficult to see how this would harm the economy? Is it difficult to see how similar this is to food stamps?So, you're saying anything that is taxed does not go back into the economy? What happens to the money? Does it disintegrate into the atmosphere?
LOL....prove it.It's a perverse incentive. That particular dollar will still get passed around, but it depresses the drive to make the next one in all levels of society.
It's been my contention for some time now that very little in the macroeconomic sense, very little of our federal taxes are truly wasted, that in reality they go towards keeping our economy flowing, and that the only federal tax dollars that are wasted are those that leave our borders. The money that the rich send to tax havens like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands - that money is wasted, and the people who do so should not be getting tax breaks at all.
It is also my contention that when it comes to federal spending, what's important is not so much that it is federal spending, but on what that federal money is spent. I love my aircraft carriers (it's a retired Navy thing), but I'd much prefer to have the tens of billions we spend on them to be spent instead on paying for college tuition for our youth.
But there are many here who think that the majority of our federal tax dollars are wasted, that they're somehow poured down an economic black hole, never to be seen again. To those people, I'd like to ask two questions:
1. What domestic spending is wasteful, and
2. Exactly how is it wasteful? Meaning, tell me what happens to the tax dollars themselves, that they are indeed wasted.
If you've ever seen a GSA contract, you'd know the answer to the question.
Grossly overpaying for goods and services, regardless of the country of origin.
Purchasing excess goods and services that are not used, paying more than market price for them, and selling the excess at a fraction of the price paid.
And all with the taxpayer's dollar.
Okay, and where did those taxpayer dollars go in those gross-overpaid contracts?
Don't get me wrong - there's plenty of examples of the government being grossly overcharged, and there's countless examples of how taxes could have been better spent...but that doesn't address my question. Describe to me what happened to those dollars that the government paid, say, when they paid $600 for a hammer back in the day (either late '80s or early '90s). The dollars didn't get dropped into a trash can or flushed down a toilet, so what happened to them?
LOL....prove it.
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