|
Economy – Thoughts on fixing it?
|
|
|
Beat Writer
      Posts: 182
Joined: 17 Dec 2013
|
Just something I feel like talking about honestly… Basically, what do you believe your country should do in order to fix the economy? Note: Your country. I don’t know how the economy works everywhere around the world… I can assume it is getting worse for everybody, just like for America, but I may not know that for sure… So let’s just have a discussion of what we believe is messing up the economies around the world and what we believe would do the best to help it! As for my own thoughts… Mine are more for the local country’s economy (Specifically America cause I live in America) and most likely it will help for only American made products, which I find is a good idea. (I rather see “Made in America” than “Made in China” more often)… They also will be in the spoiler below.
Spoiler: Click to View
|
|
Muckraker
     Posts: 317
Joined: 18 Feb 2013
|
I don’t see why you have a problem with “Made in China” products, almost everything (over 80% of products) that are consumed in the US are made in the US, and there are more imports from Canada then China. As for fixing my economy, I can’t really say since economic issues are just to varied within my country depending on the region. For my own, I’d get the feds to start building that bridge that is supposed to replace the old Jacques Cartier bridge. It’s the most used bridge in the country and it’s falling apart, we need that new one that can actually accommodate all the traffic up yesterday. |
|
Master Archivist
    Posts: 8258
Joined: 18 Nov 2009
|
The economy is something nearly impossible to fix because almost no one really understands it. It isn’t as much a science as it is a big fat guessing game as to what everyone will think is and isn’t worth buying and selling at any given time. Irrational thought becomes fact, if enough people believe it’s true. People believe something is worth while, so the demands go up, so suddenly the prices go up. People think something is now worthless? Now nobody will buy it, and it will BECOME worthless. Fortunes are made and lost in the stock market every day because of this. The economy is run by everyone. You, me, some farmer in the middle of Africa, everyone in some way is effecting everything else. Logic and reason stop working when your dealing with SO many people with contradicting. Someone else on this thread is going to say the opposite that the OP did, that we must increase minimum wage, increase regulations on business, only by increasing the cost on business that anything will be done. Which one of you is actually “right” basically doesn’t matter, it what people THINK is the right answer. Thus, there is very little one can really do that will defiently help the economy. |
|
Gone Gonzo
      Posts: 1339
Joined: 10 Sep 2008
|
Fixing the economy, good luck, that reminds me of a joke. If you ask 10 economists a question you will get 12 answers because when you get to the end of the line the first 2 changed their minds. |
|
Muckraker
   Posts: 262
Joined: 27 Jul 2011
|
I’m in the U.S. I would start by reestablishing many of the industries which have been lost to foreign suppliers, including textiles. First I would have studies done to determine what industries would be viable for a given region or area and then set-up companies to make the products. The focus would be on small manufacturing for local markets. The companies would be set-up as ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership). There would be no union. Instead, the stock in the companies would be held by the employees who would vote for top management. The employees would be paid in dividends as well as salary. So, you ask, where are we going to get the money for all these new companies? Taxes are too high as it is. Well, I say, the money is all ready there, or should I say here, over a trillion dollars worth, just sitting around doing nothing, waiting for a “repatriation holiday”. Its being held in accounts labeled “off shore income”. Its not really off shore money. Most of it is here in the states, held in U.S. banks, and it was made here in the states too, but the tax code lets multinational corporations call it off shore income and pay no tax on it, that is, until they declare that it was “brought in”. I say we change the law, declare all money made in the U.S. is taxable in the U.S. and tax it at the rate of 35%. 35% of a Trillion will build a lot of domestic industry. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/business/for-us-companies-money-offshore-means-manhattan.html |
|
Nobel Laureate
     Posts: 15216
Joined: 16 Jan 2010
|
Er…why assume the economy is getting worse for everyone? Anyway, reducing the US minimum wage is a terrible idea. You have a lot of people struggling with poverty in the US as it is, cutting their salaries isn’t going to help. What would help is getting politicians to recognise that a functioning economy is a good thing, and not kicking it to pieces out of spite. Shutting the government down is an exceedingly stupid thing to do. |
|
Gone Gonzo
    Posts: 1939
Joined: 4 Aug 2011
|
What makes you think the economy can be broken and need fixing? When people say things like that, it sounds to my ears similar to saying “how do we stop the tides from moving” or “how do we stop winter from coming.” Even if we could do those things, we shouldn’t because the things you percieve as bad are part of a natural balance. There is no way to give the world full employment forever because trying to do so would horrendously break some other part of the balanced system. The more important question to answer is how do we keep people happy and healthy regardless of where the economy stands. |
|
Wordsmith Extraordinaire
      Posts: 14793
Joined: 20 Nov 2008
|
Well, you could start by making businesses operate in accordance with how ecomonics actually works. There are means and practices by which you make profit and do not fuck over everyone else, thus securing future business and happy returns in the market. You know, the not-short-sighted stuff they teach you in college that nobody listens to. |
|
On the Record
  Posts: 5146
Joined: 5 May 2011
|
(UK) – Invest away from London and into the rest of the country. London may be a good financial centre but it is not the whole of the UK. |
