How would you fix the budget?

It's called a "global economic crisis," and it's now spreading to the Eurozone and Asia. The main driver involves over a quadrillion dollars of unregulated derivatives.

Originally Posted by Monk
The main driver involves over a quadrillion dollars of unregulated derivatives.

Source?

Based on this source, I'd say you're just a bit off. Quadrillion is a big number. It appears there isn't anywhere close to a quadrillion dollars totally, let alone if you limit it to "unregulated derivitives".

The stock of all debt and equity across the globe increased by 5% in 2010 to $212 trillion, surpassing its previous peak in 2007, according to McKinsey Global Institute.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
I find that most people that don't have a passion for their work end up not being overly successful at it. It's hard to hate what you do and be great at it.

That might not be the work that they are doing, but rather the people they are doing the work for. I worked at a place one time where all the Regional manager cared about were his managers. Could care less for the people who were actually doing all the work. He rewarded the managers, who already make more money for not working, who met their sales goals with a seven day cruise. The reward for those of us who had to do all the work to begin with?? I had to do my job PLUS the managers job. And he couldnt figure out why I was upset. When I told him why I was upset his response? You'll get over it. I told him he was right, i would. But not here. I resigned on the spot. I had another job 1 hour later. And all the customers who were seeing me at that shop came with me. He called me about a month later begging me to come back. I told him i wouldn't but he would get over it.

Killing all neoliberal policies will fix the budget

How about simply killing all neoliberals!!

Careful, Corwin, it's a trap. When Tragos says "neoliberal", he means everyone this side of Che Guevara.

Yes, I had to.

My 10/10/10 plan would fix the revenue side of things.

First $10,000 of income is untaxed.
All income (corporate and individual) of all kinds after the above 10k is taxed at 10%.
10% sales tax.
No exceptions, no deductions, no special cases, NONE AT ALL, it's 10%.

I ran the numbers a while back and it worked out quite well. Everyone would hate this plan, though.

I've read various articles on 'flat tax' ideas, but I can't remember why most experts claim they won't work. Yours is the lowest tax I've seen. The majority were around 25%. Hopefully, some of our financial gurus here (BN?) can enlighten us.

The usual complaint about flat taxes is that they don't generate as much revenue, which results in a higher base rate. That, right or wrong, ends up sounding like a hike on low income people that can afford it least. The math on that argument tends to be a little shaky, but it "sounds reasonable" and the people that usually support a flat tax are righties that promptly get tarred as "eat the poor" demons by the other side of the aisle.

Mine is progressive in that the first $10k is tax free. That helps the poor and small businesses. Yes, some people who now pay no federal income tax would have to under my plan but too bad. Some people would pay less in taxes and some more but how much you pay would no longer depend on if you had bought any congressmen or had great tax lawyers..

I actually fed the US economy numbers in and it came out OK but that was a few years ago.

The big things is eliminating all the crap that people use to avoid paying taxes. That's where Cain's (and most other) flat tax plan fell down.

Originally Posted by Corwin
How about simply killing all neoliberals!!

Worst than death is to put them in manual labour since they have not work a day in their lives.


dteowner neoloberalism isn't even capitalism

Originally Posted by Tragos
Worst than death is to put them in manual labour since they have not work a day in their lives.[/URL]

I've often thought that everyone should have to work at least a year at several different kinds of "crappy" jobs (retail, restaurant, heavy labor, …). I used to work for a really nice and extremely wealthy lady who had never worked in her life (she was the daughter of wealthy people married to a wealthy guy), couldn't drive though she had cars, and (seriously!) did not even know how to change a light bulb. She'd call in a worker to change a bulb. She had the strangest notions of how other people lived and worked from her insulated and gilded little world.

Originally Posted by Corwin
How about simply killing all neoliberals!!

Well that's a pretty un-Christian thing to say!

Yes, isn't it? There's a reason for believing that someone died for one's sins. Guilt. I suppose that' better than feeling no remorse.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Source?

Based on this source, I'd say you're just a bit off. Quadrillion is a big number. It appears there isn't anywhere close to a quadrillion dollars totally, let alone if you limit it to "unregulated derivitives".

For the BIS, it's more than $700 trillion:

http://www.efinancialnews.com/digest…es-market-size

ISDA follows the BIS data:

http://www2.isda.org/functional-area…h/data-sources

and (ironically) reported in the same magazine from which you got your information:

"Global OTC derivatives"

http://www.economist.com/node/21554558

However,

"Top Derivatives Expert Estimates Size of the Global Derivatives Market at $1,200 Trillion Dollars … 20 Times Larger than the Global Economy"

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/…es-market.html

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
I've often thought that everyone should have to work at least a year at several different kinds of "crappy" jobs (retail, restaurant, heavy labor, …). I used to work for a really nice and extremely wealthy lady who had never worked in her life (she was the daughter of wealthy people married to a wealthy guy), couldn't drive though she had cars, and (seriously!) did not even know how to change a light bulb. She'd call in a worker to change a bulb. She had the strangest notions of how other people lived and worked from her insulated and gilded little world.

Work makes you smarter, even the dumbest of work does and specially when you are lazy.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
I've often thought that everyone should have to work at least a year at several different kinds of "crappy" jobs (retail, restaurant, heavy labor, …).

When I was growing up it was called being a teenager