- Joined
- May 12, 2014
- Messages
- 6,815
- Reaction score
- 4,420
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
"It (the U.S.) could spend in any amount that it wants to. The only only real issue here, the only thing that we have to consider, is whether or not that spending, at some point, leads to an inflation. And the only way that's going to happen is when the governnment spends beyond the capacity of the economy to produce. In other words, when every single person in this country who is able to work is working, and when all of our resources are used up, and you spend beyond that, that's when you have a sustainable inflation. That's the real issue we should be talking about. That's the question we should be asking ourselves. And frankly, with a 9% unemployment rate, and millions of people out of work, and industrial capacity far below what our potential is, and millions of unsold homes, and all this other excess capacity that we have, what we should be doing is increasing demand, and the way that we do that in an economy where most people are trying to cut back their debt is for the government to step in and stimulate demand by spending..."
Questions for debate:
Is it possible for the U.S. government to "run out" of dollars? If so, explain how.
If the government cannot run out of dollars, does it make sense for the government to run our economy as if we were in danger of running out of dollars?
Is there any better use of the government's ability to create and spend dollars than to employ the unemployed, and otherwise spend for the benefit of its citizens?
Do you think that it would be damaging to our economy for the government to run a budget surplus? Explain why or why not.