9 Trillion Dollar Debt = Compulsory Tax Burden + IncomeTax

[Yootopia]

In the UK we are all covered and we spend significantly less per head than the 80% or so of the American public which is insured, whilst still having better rates of infant mortality and the like.

The UK doesn't have terribly inefficient social health care services like medicare and medicaid, which were our experiments with a "universal health care system".

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly, the civil service would have a bit of a boost in morale and would also take its role more seriously.

[Farnhamia]

OR we can just not spend all this money on shitty stuff we don't need or things that won't work efficiently (like health care)?

In the UK we are all covered and we spend significantly less per head than the 80% or so of the American public which is insured, whilst still having better rates of infant mortality and the like.

You wimpy Europeans. Us rugged Americans just shake off illness and go right on conquering the wilderness. Why, my grandpappy cleared 40 acres of woodland and fought off three Injun attacks with a compound fracture of his right leg. Health care? Who needs it?

[Akimonad]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

[Kashindahar]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

It's made up of people. If the government can't do anything properly, then people can't do anything properly. If people can't do anything properly, then business can't do any better than government, and the problem is moot.

[Yootopia]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Sounds unlikely.

[Akimonad]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Sounds unlikely.

So does your plan.

Obviously if we start vainly hoping in our government, it will suddenly work efficiently.

Right.

[Almagarde]

OR we can just not spend all this money on shitty stuff we don't need or things that won't work efficiently (like health care)?

You just dropped the H-bomb. Prepare to be flooded by NSG.

right now the USA is below possible economic output because 50% of its population need medical help and are not getting it. By curing them of illness, you increase the number of people who can work and need jobs, this increases the number of people who can pay tax...which pay for medical and schooling...which increases the number of people who can work...which increases the need for jobs, which is upward economic growth.

This is basic medieval economics. If you increase the amount of food and resources to the Serfs, you increase their capacity to produce and their health. That means you get even more money in tax when they can pay in surplus. That means you can maintain infrastructure like roads. Which means Produce is not rotting in fields because you cant afford to make wagons, employ labourers to collect it, and can sell it for cheaper to your export economy allowing you to get richer. If you improve the lives of the people at the bottom, you get richer at the top...I realize they dont teach that in Squeze blood from a stone economics.

[Farnhamia]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

It's made up of people. If the government can't do anything properly, then people can't do anything properly. If people can't do anything properly, then business can't do any better than government, and the problem is moot.

Quite right. And anyway, who says the government can't do anything right? It runs the Armed Forces pretty well, if expensively. It regulates commerce, it regulates food and drugs, it keeps the rivers and air from becoming polluted, it manages a myriad of programs that help a great many people. The anti-government types talk as if tax money is simply put into the pockets of politicians and their ilk, and nothing ever gets done by the government. That's simply not true.

[Westeroth]

and leave people to die

At least they found a way around the "compulsory tax burden." Damn tax cheats.

[Yootopia]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Sounds unlikely.

So does your plan.

Obviously if we start vainly hoping in our government, it will suddenly work efficiently.

Right.

I don't see how it's a vain hope. Since Reagan and probably before, people, esp. Republicans, have been ripping the piss out of the government in an attempt to be witty and glib. Perhaps the constant notion over at least the last 25-30 years that the government is obviously and automatically a shower of shite might be affecting your civil service, who, being normal people, will be hearing this kind of rubbish on a daily basis.

[Farnhamia]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Sounds unlikely.

So does your plan.

Obviously if we start vainly hoping in our government, it will suddenly work efficiently.

Right.

I don't see how it's a vain hope. Since Reagan and probably before, people, esp. Republicans, have been ripping the piss out of the government in an attempt to be witty and glib. Perhaps the constant notion over at least the last 25-30 years that the government is obviously and automatically a shower of shite might be affecting your civil service, who, being normal people, will be hearing this kind of rubbish on a daily basis.

And one does have to wonder about the Republicans who sing that constant song about the evils of government and then fight tooth and nail to be part of it.

[Almagarde]

50% desert to Canada rather than work in compulsory labour as part of their tax payment...

[Cosmopoles]

Legalise pot and tax the crap out of it.

Unfortunately there's already a large amount of cannabis being supplied by people that are adept at avoiding being taxed.

[Kashindahar]

Legalise pot and tax the crap out of it.

Unfortunately there's already a large amount of cannabis being supplied by people that are adept at avoiding being taxed.

Would you buy from hippies who lace your shit with horse throw-up if you could buy it legally?

[Sibirsky]

Is there no "just pay it" option?

This is your compulsory tax burden. You still have Income Tax to pay. Otherwise you would all be paying fifty grand a year in tax...and those who cannot pay fifty grand a year in tax are tax cheats...better to subject you all to an equal increase in service based tax payment.

Err can the government not just cut spending and gradually pay it off -_-

In theory yes, In practice no.

[Lacadaemon]

Stupid foreigners. That will teach them to mess with us. Because that shit is never being paid.

[Motokata]

Maybe Congress should stop giving themselves pay raises. Hell let's cut their salaries down a little. Okay well maybe Obama and every president to follow should give their paychecks up to the National Debt (The President does earn a salary for reasons one can only imagine) Assuming the President can do so anyway I haven't exactly researched the Presidential Salary other than currently it's $400,000. I am being half serious about this but it may be impractical anyway.

[NotnotgnimmiJymmiJ]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Clinton managed to get a surplus. Who's to say we can't do it again?

[Zoharland]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Clinton managed to get a surplus. Who's to say we can't do it again?

Clinton had a republican congress that stopped him from spending crazy amounts of money. A democratic congress can't stop spending, its not in their nature. They have no concept of what a budget is, and when you need to start cutting back when you go over that budget.

I could trust a republican congress, but not a democratic one.

[Farnhamia]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Clinton managed to get a surplus. Who's to say we can't do it again?

Clinton had a republican congress that stopped him from spending crazy amounts of money. A democratic congress can't stop spending, its not in their nature. They have no concept of what a budget is, and when you need to start cutting back when you go over that budget.

I could trust a republican congress, but not a democratic one.

Like the Republican Congress during the Bush administration that let him blow the Clinton surplus to hell and gone?

[NotnotgnimmiJymmiJ]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Clinton managed to get a surplus. Who's to say we can't do it again?

Clinton had a republican congress that stopped him from spending crazy amounts of money. A democratic congress can't stop spending, its not in their nature. They have no concept of what a budget is, and when you need to start cutting back when you go over that budget.

I could trust a republican congress, but not a democratic one.

Last time I checked, Reagan and Bush both ran record deficits. Remind me again, who was it who controlled Congress?

[Cosmopoles]

Legalise pot and tax the crap out of it.

Unfortunately there's already a large amount of cannabis being supplied by people that are adept at avoiding being taxed.

Would you buy from hippies who lace your shit with horse throw-up if you could buy it legally?

Me personally? No. But the thriving trade in black market alcohol and tobacco indicates that people are willing to accept potentially dangerous and illegal products at a reduced cost.

[Greed and Death]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly[...]

What if it can't?

Clinton managed to get a surplus. Who's to say we can't do it again?

Clinton had a republican congress that stopped him from spending crazy amounts of money. A democratic congress can't stop spending, its not in their nature. They have no concept of what a budget is, and when you need to start cutting back when you go over that budget.

I could trust a republican congress, but not a democratic one.

Last time I checked, Reagan and Bush both ran record deficits. Remind me again, who was it who controlled Congress?

During Regan era ?
The democrats.(think the republicans held the senate for 2 years. )
Bush is 6 years republicans, 2 years democrats.

[Natapoc]

Make the people who supported the war pay for it. Everyone who: after September 11th thought it was a good idea to invade other countries. Simply withdraw the money from their bank accounts.


Either that or you can pursue a monetary policy that will ensure the debt is easily payable from inflation so you don't have to deal with the consequences of your actions...

[Conserative Morality]

Maybe if you trusted your government to do anything properly, the civil service would have a bit of a boost in morale and would also take its role more seriously.

Trust is earned, not given.