🚀 go-pugleaf

On May 30, 3:17 pm, Libertarian Lilly <L...@nospam.com> wrote:
> The socialist answer to the problems caused by too much borrowing &
> spending...
>
> ...borrow and spend even more!
>
> Hey, can I borrow and spend my way to prosperity too?
>
> http://tribune-democrat.com/editorials/x234169852/Jim-Scofield-Has-
> austerity-really-worked
>
> May 29, 2012
> Jim Scofield | Has austerity really worked?
>
> Jim Scofield
>
> — We should have learned from our experience recovering from the Great
> Depression of the 1930s that government austerity programs only make the
> economy worse in the face of an economic collapse. The Hoover and Roosevelt
> administrations tried government cutbacks without success.
>
> Now, Britain, Ireland and many other European countries that have been
> drastically cutting spending to balance budgets are demonstrating this
> again.
>
> Sadly, so are we.
>
> The United States pulled out of the 1930s crash with New Deal government
> initiatives, and finally with World War II spending, and the postwar
> programs, such as the GI Educational Bill, subsidization of housing and
> more.
>
> The huge debts amassed by these expenditures were paid off by a revived
> economy.
>
> Slashing federal spending and cutting 600,000 state and local jobs is
> counterproductive. This is a government-induced fiscal contraction on top
> of the private economy’s.
>
> The idea that “Americans are used to living on a budget,” as Republican
> House Speaker John Boehner phrased it, is a misleading old saw. We have the
> highest home ownership because most families borrow in order to buy a
> house. Most of us don’t plunk down $25,000 or so to buy a car – we go into
> debt.
>
> The same for education spending and credit card debts. Indeed, without such
> indebtedness, our economy would never expand properly.
>
> Corporations borrow, too.
>
> Banks speculate wildly – witness Bank of America recently – and with
> depositors’ government guaranteed funds.
>
> Let’s not forget that what most conservative austerity advocates want is
> not really less government spending, but lower taxes on the rich and lower
> social spending.
>
> Republican administrations, from Reagan through George W. Bush, while
> preaching balanced budgets, increased the debt much faster than Democrats
> (Clinton and Carter). And Bush’s tax cuts, wars and drug-company friendly
> Medicare bill account for large parts of the past three years’ debt.
>
> The Paul Ryan budget proposal, dutifully passed on a Republican party line
> and endorsed by Mitt Romney, claims it will reduce the debt, but only by
> using unspecified revenues.
>
> Cutting public budgets and employment when there is already high
> unemployment just sinks us deeper into the hole, with fewer consumers able
> to buy as much. We have 13 million officially unemployed, not counting
> part-time and discouraged workers.
>
> Our private sector has been laying off by the hundreds of thousands. Yet
> corporate profits are up, along with ex-ecutive pay. The top 50 Pittsburgh
> area CEOs’ pay was up 12 percent last year, averaging $7.3 million. And
> that’s just Pittsburgh – CEOs nationally average $11 million.
>
> In contrast, unemployment benefits have been cut back.
>
> Eleven million homeowners owe more on their houses than they’re worth.
>
> Even many recent college graduates are unemployed or employed in low-pay,
> non-graduate-type jobs, or even unpaid internships – the latter their
> gamble that these might lead to real jobs.
>
> And those from poorer- or medium-income families often face tens of
> thousands of dollars in debts. These slow career starts, or no starts, will
> redound unfavorably throughout their working lives. Economist Paul Krugman
> suggests that the real burden on future generations isn’t big government
> debt but delayed career starts and lower paying jobs for today’s youth, the
> latter leading to lower tax support of government.
>
> Businesses and conservative  politicians see this crisis as a good
> opportunity to cut wages and benefits of both public and private workers,
> to cut social support programs and get rid of unions. Republican
> politicians have never favored Social Security and Medicare, except
> grudgingly. The Paul Ryan Republican plan will jeopardize Medicare by
> making it into a voucher plan dependent on private insurance. It proposes
> large cuts to income tax and corporate tax rates, further benefiting the
> wealthy.
>
> These proposed tax cuts are not liable to get the economy moving.
> Corporations – such as Hewlett-Packard, about to lay off 30,000 workers –
> are downsizing their labor forces.
>
> State and local governments, which are savaging school budgets and cutting
> support programs, need federal help. The Obama stimulus probably kept us
> from a full-fledged depression, but was not enough to prevent a long-term
> decline. As we should have learned from the 1930s and the damage austerity
> has done to Europe since the economic crash, we need a more active federal
> effort. Too many Americans are suffering.
>
> Jim Scofield of Richland Township is an associate professor emeritus of
> English at Pitt-Johnstown.
> ___________________________
>
> "We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not
> work.... We have never made good on our promises.... I say after eight
> years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we
> started... and an enormous debt to boot." - Henry Morgenthau, who served as
> Roosevelt's treasury secretary during FDR's administration. He was the one
> who originally worked with FDR to formulate those spending policies, the
> New Deal.
>
> Yes, Obama is emulating FDR.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_of_1920%E2%80%9321

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