World GDP

Well, it appears we have finally committed ourselves to more financial obligations than the entire rest of the worlds GDP. When you add in all the unfunded liabilities of SS Medicare and Federal and retirement and medical we have eaten up the entire Worlds productivity. That amounts to $65 Trillion dollars.

Now that is something to be proud of. We have allowed the Government to promise future payments without accounting for them as a cost of current operations. We just keep giving to the bureaucracy without any responsibility for how we are going to pay for it.

I realize that there is an unfunded liability we can afford as a part of our total economy. It is I guess like a mortgage payment. But I believe we just put our Government into the sub prime catagory.

I am beginning to understand why the rest of the civilized world really do think we are the dumbest people coming down the path.

I realize this is just fine with probably most on the site because we have an obligation to take care of the people who work for the Government and they deserve everything they have been done for them.

I am just upset with the total lack of accountability for paying the bill.

This should actually terrify everyone. How can a system this leveraged stay afloat. I can actually picture someone standing at the podium and telling us that in order to pay for the cost of our Government they have to take ownership of all businesses and all profits and funds in excess of cost to the federal Government.

Does anyone have a thought on this or a way out.

Those of us with ambition who work and pay our bills just need to bend on over and prepare for more.

I think we're just about to reach critcal mass and it aint gonna be pretty. We have been robbing Peter to pay Paul for the last 80 years and I think we are just about Petered out.

LaVerne Wrote:

Mike, It's been applied for years. I'm starting to get a nose bleed if you know what I mean.

Hey....I am not.

Maybe if they hadn't raided soc sec and highway funding it wouldn't be so bad
Maybe if they hadn't allowed lending with nothing down and no income it wouldn't be so bad
and on and on

''as I am a man of few words it can be said in a few :
"They have no shame and they have no honor. "

Hope we ALL rember this B S at election times
Throw all them encumbents OUT - locals too !

Any day congress meets we lose more and more liberties
have they ever done anything but screw up ?? NAME IT
Just look at all the crap they have done in the less than four weeks of the "change we can believe in" folks
I will not be at all suprised if in a few years we can't drive our polluting B's
have they bever done anything but screw us ??

call me bitter P Oed LIBERTERIAN ''

It's really hard for me to understand the mindset of the debt and borrowing mentality, being pretty conservative fiscally.

I don't see any way out, Richard. I won't pretend to do as much research and reading as you and some others on this site do, but for years I've been wondering how the US could keep going the way it's been indefinitely. It just didn't seem sustainable. Well, I guess we see the answer....it isn't sustainable.

The rest of the world don't think the US are dumb; we just thought that Bush was dumb. But I am surprised at the levels of debt Bush has (and Obama will) pile onto an already creaking national debt, a massive amount of which is owned by foreign governments.

"Hope we ALL rember this B S at election times
Throw all them encumbents OUT - locals too !"

Not going to happen because it STILL will be claimed to be Bush's fault 4 or 8 years from now.

Steve, The only etitlement Bush added was prescription medicine and that was bad. He fought a war and to ascribe this problem to Bush is wrong and ignoring the cause. But as long as people like you think it is Bush it will never get dealt with and the Politicians have won another round.

What you won't look at is the probem since the LBJ great society and the give aways just exploded and they have not stopped. I must say in behalf of Obama and the liberal Congress thank you for your support.

:S Who's talking about entitlements? I'm simply talking about the undeniably huge increase in Federal Debt that happened on Bush's watch, and that will happen on Obama's - as the foreign ownership of that debt increases steadily...

Generation X and Y will cut-off funding to a retired Me Generation. Problem solved.

Keep in mind our friends in China, Japan, and Europe have the same problem (and worse) with rapidly aging populations. For example, the population of Italy and Japan will be halved by the end of the century at current fertility rates. China has a "One Child" policy, and almost no immigration, that will shrink their population as well. I would guess that in 200 years the population of Europe, China, and the U.S. will be roughly equal at a lower density than today. Industrialized societies with birth control do not have kids at a fertility rate (roughly 2.1 kids per gal) that replaces population. Fertility rates will drop below replacement in much of the Third World as development continues.

Steve, we need to separate out the Iraq and war on terror and then look at what is left. I am not and have never said that the Bush administration held costs. But you are looking at the proverbial pimple on a goats butt if you are worried about the Bush long term spending commitments.

I could live with over spending building a bridge or a new office building. What I can deal with is the increase in manning levels and entitlement spending. It never goes away. They never lay off workers they just move the funding and it just keeps gong.

Ryan,

And what sane person would commit future entitlement dollars in a declining demographic. (A liberal) I agree that Europe will be worse and they will come out of this mess after us because they have such a higher cost of Government and social programs.

My problem is that the nut cases in the Senate and Congress want to emulate their system. It is crazy they can't see where it leads.

I am just at a loss to see what benefits you see to what we are doing. I can't get my head around the thinking.

Ryan, you mentioned declining populations in industrialized countries and you are partly correct. The indigenous population is seeing a declining birth rate, while the immigrant population is reproducing at double or more. The Muslim population of Europe is exploding and I can see the Mexican population doing the same here if we don't control it. The Libs will cater to these groups to buys their votes and the whole system will continue to decay. How will Gen X and Y fix this problem when they overwhelmingly vote Democrat? We need a viable third party in the middle who would represent the vast majority of this country, to hell with the far left and the far right!

John, I have never been much a fan of the third party idea in the past but I am starting to rethink that. If it would be a way to weaken the hold the Democrats are going to have on the national elections for the foreseeable future I might start to support it.

I have always thought it was important to have at least a majority of people supporting a party. Now with the Democrats in the position to buy the Hispanic votes and maintain them in a block like the African American, Jewish and Gay population it might be something to think about.

Unfortunately even with all the talk about people voting as individuals and outside of ethnic background it really doesn't happen. They seem to vote in the block regardless and the Democrats are masterful at using that to their advantage.

We would only need a very handsome fiscal conservative who can make great speeches. When the country is in great financial difficulty it would be a good time to embark on the road to a new savior. He would go to the people with a new campaign speech every Friday and preach catastrophe unless we act. He could submit 1100 page bills no one reads and really change the direction of the country. Why move away from a plan that works.

"We would only need a very handsome fiscal conservative who can make great speeches. When the country is in great financial difficulty it would be a good time to embark on the road to a new savior. He would go to the people with a new campaign speech every Friday and preach catastrophe unless we act. He could submit 1100 page bills no one reads and really change the direction of the country. Why move away from a plan that works".

If you've never read it, Dick Morris' book "Fleeced", had an entire chapter on how Obama would pen every Democratic pipe dream into an economic stimulus bill.

Mike, it looks like Morris was pretty accurate.

richard it is becoming more enjoyable reading your posts these days. knowing cheeny and bush are gone and the power has passed too new hands. the bitterness is leaving.

James, I really don't care who is in office really I just try to look at what they are doing. But you know I was a big supporter of the Bush foreign policy and not of the fiscal managment of the Nation. With Bush and Cheney gone and the campaign over there is nothing to compare to. Now it is all about what the current administration is doing. I will continue to post about what I see Obama doing.

I still think anyone who supported him was crazy and did not realize what this man and his co-horts have in mind. And if they did and still voted, then for me that was worse.

But I am not bitter at all. I truly believe the voters get what they deserve good or bad.

I think when the full weight of what they are doing hits our shoulders it will be a surprise for 50 million people who did not understand and a pleasant surprise for the other 20 million who knew full well what is being done.

I see that you use the name roofer 1 so I hope you are "not" into mostly retail contracts. You need to sign up for a Union contract and be able to work for the Public agencies to get in on the transfer of wealth and commerce.