“A Tragic Moment”: D.C. Politicians “Totally Wrong” About Spending, Galbraith Says

Utilizing the unemployed population (welfare and food stamp recipients inluded) resource as general laborers on roads,caring for elderly on medicare, sweeping factory floors, maintaining and repairing foreclosures, manufacturing goods Made In The U.S.A. competing with China. Once revenues are realized a quarterly bonus percentage above your unemployment check will be issued. This will instill a sense of accomplishment patriotism and compassion among this overlooked misunderstood and misused part of society. Any unexcused absence will be a forfeit of your benefits.(sick, funeral,maternity,ot job interview.)
Open to any other ideas.

This guy is as bad as the politicians. MORE GOVERNMENT SPENDING? Poppycock! When will we learn that by living within our means is the only solution here? Increased private sector investment is the only solution.

For every green job created in Europe they lost 2.2 other jobs.

Academia is ALSO not the economy. We need solutions from people who actually have real world experience. Like promoting the productive capacity of the American worker to create wealth. The Govt cannot create wealth, it can only destroy it.

What is cruel to lower income people is to lock them into low paying jobs along with governemmnt dependency with no hope for advancement.

Well he is right about one thing, the government needs to spend when the people can't. Part of the problem is that the government was spending when times were good and has nothing left.

The biggest federal stimulus spending program in history fails and this nimrod wants us to go back to the well? The Greek model of fiscal policy has failed professor, you've played all the cards in your Keynesian deck and it's time to walk away from the poker table.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011 ��� The 28th Amendment-2/3 of the states to propose; 3/4 to amend.
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in
office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All
funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.
Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress
is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
8. Any congressman resigning due to unlawful acts receives NO benefits.

Politicians wrong? Say it ain't so.

Actually, I didn't think right & wrong had anything to do with actions of Politicians. I thought it was about power and prestige. Go figure.

The obvious question is what will create real jobs? Much of the infrastructure relied on to bounce back in the last big recession is no longer present due to globalization. The shift to a "service" economy is only good if there is core infrastructure to support ancillary businesses that are service industries. Those core competencies are now on foreign soil so they contribute jobs and infrastructure to foreign countries. There is no soft landing for the U.S. economy, in fact things are on the brink of getting much worse. Interest rates must be held low indefinitely because just a slight rise in debt interest translates into $billions$ for interest on the debt. The tax base is so eroded, there are insufficient revenues to support normal spending much less wars and subsides. We are experiencing the longest period of High unemployment since the great depression.

In my early 60s, I'm holding a professional job that would pay for 2 younger folks with my same education' albeit less experience (but enough). I want out....but Medicare and SS are still a few years out. So I have to work and the next-gens will just have to wait. Make me an offer!

The first thing that needs to happen is we need REAL people in our government to represent us. Representatives that truly care about our country & the people of this country NOT JUST THEIR DAM PARTY. Why are they not telling so called AMERICAN companies to start making there products IN AMERICA. The American people WILL buy American made products IF they have the jobs this would create. Look at NIKE, their shoes sell for $50 to $200 bucks. They do not make shoes in AMERICA, Look at Wal-Mart, How many products do they sell with MADE IN THE U.S.A.-VERY FEW! on & on, company after so called U.S. company.
All of these SO CALLED American companies now make most of there stuff over seas
but charge just as much if not MORE to the American consumer so they can see their STOCK go up so THEY can make even MORE. That���s what really going on. In America we need some REAL AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVES, Let them in for ONE term ONLY and NO MORE. No retirement plan, Health care for the One term & NO LONGER, $50,000 to $70,000 /year & NO MORE. The American people ALSO need to start CARING about EACH OTHER, and caring about OUR SOLDERS coming back from war, instead of just football, baseball, basketball, ETC. Lets get back to WORKING TOGATHER and NOT just about OURSELVES so that we can live up to what this country is called, UNITED States of America.

What he he is suggesting is a buyout of unemployed workers that are near retirement age. He should have specified some detailed figures to clarify his position. The reality of the current situation is that laid off people over the age of 55 can't and will never find jobs. They are permanently unemployable. Companies want to hire low wage young people that they can work 60 hours a week and pay them for 40. Another huge problem is that health insurance for a 55+ worker is at least 4 times that of a 25 year old. The insurance can easily be 1/2 of their salary, or even more. What he should have said is that we should implement a one time VOLUNTARY buyout to get some of these people out of the work force to make room for the younger folks. He is trying to argue that this would be a much more effective and immediate use of stimulus money because it has a long term effect instead of quickly running out like it is now. Looking at is this way makes his ideas credible. He just didn't provide enough detail. Obviously, what we are doing now stinks.

Looking for jobs in the wong place. insted of fighting for the small amount of small jobs we have we need to get back the jobs we sent abroud.

"Furthermore, he argues America's long-term deficit problems are "completely disconnected" from current U.S. borrowing costs, which he notes remain relatively (and historically) low."

If he actually thinks this, Galbraith is disconnected from basic economics. The US is importing more than it is exporting. We are printing money, that is not backed by gold but by reputation, in order to pay for social programs and for imported goods from the very countries loaning the money! So take the cost of these programs and goods and add interest adjusted by inflation. As soon as these countries decide to stop loaning money....they will return the hoarded dollars and flood our system with them. This will causes serious inflation here.

Even worse, we do not manufacture enough domestically to overcome this. While I completely disagree with the various policies designed to transfer wealth from the earner to anyone else (including the fed) the underlying problem is we don't produce (manufacture) enough goods to sell. We CAN NOT consume our way to economic growth. Spending may put money into the system and can be manipulated to LOOK like growth, but it is not CREATING wealth...it is simply transferring money from one place to another

Something I heard the other day:

A guy goes in for credit counseling. He has $396,000 in credit card debt, a $55,000/year income, and has been spending $96,000 a year for quite a few years.

What do you tell him?

So, professor Galbraith, what do you tell him, because the above numbers are in exactly the same ratios as the US government's finances!

Let me see!? Mom and Dad taught me, (i'm 63), save for rainy days, save before buying so you don,t pay interest, invest your savings, pay off your mortgage, don,t borrow! Then when you can,t work anymore you,ll be OK!!
Seems to me it works! I own my home, and car. Don,t carry credit card debt. I eat well, do about what I want to and relatively happy! OH, and I have a nice portfolio which I manage myself and have yet to dip into. A savings account at the Credit Union, Still. The most I have ever earned was $33,000, in 1989, as aMSgt in the USAF. Taxable+non-taxable.
Did I mention we put our two children through college without government help, and mom stayed home? Both gainfully employed and doing well!
Why does that work for us and the federal government needs to do the opposite so I don,t fail?

I am 84, raised four children, helped three through college and was earning $47,000 when I retired 22 years ago. Have a paid-up home no outstanding debt and have always lived within my means. If I lived this way why am I expected to pay taxes and fees to support those who chose to live a more profligate life style? Why are 1 in 8 people on food stamps and 47% of the population not paying any taxes?

We already spend more on the military than all other countries combined - and for what? Ask any soldier and he can tell you stories of amazing waste.

Cut the military budget in half. Divert half of it into productive enterprises that don't blow up and disappear (like missiles and cluster bombs. That will help the situation.

Looks like the professor got his credentials from the University of Zimbabwe. Can't you just see Mugabe just saying "we need more money so just print some more'! Bought some Zimbabwe currency on Ebay. The 100 Trillion Dollar bill is a hoot! Inflation kills the working man. That is the truth.

Galbraith's proposal is only another bandaid approach that would run its course in a couple of years like the prior stimulus efforts. What's needed are structural and systemic changes like getting the Fed out of the economy and stopping the market manipulations. Central economic planning did not work for the Soviets and the more DC tinkers with our economy the more massive speculation will continue to substitute for real growth.