12-02-2016, 01:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-02-2016, 01:05 AM by Eric the Green.)
Warren, you pointed out that tech developments can power economic growth as well as population increase can. And a growth economy will raise interest rates. And we need interest rates to be moderately higher. Bill Clinton's era came closest to the path we should have been on. He was able to get some tax increases and a surplus in the budget. Interest rates rose up to about 6% shortly after his presidency. When he left office the high tech boom of that time was powering economic growth, and the debt started to go down.
We need moderate interest rates to encourage investments and savings, which builds capital and economic activity. Thus we need a smaller debt, I think, so interest rates don't cripple government. And we need government to invest and help the people. Without government, investment remains short term and there's no infrastructure, both soft and hard kinds. Only such government investment allows the economy to expand. Tolls and barriers, as Trump wants, are no basis for a free national commerce that promotes economic activity.
The Clinton tax rates were moderate. It was the right balance to provide a basis for growth. Almost all economic and tech advancement depends on this government investment. Highways and bridges, railroads and ports, scientific research, support for the arts, help to the needy, support for free non-authoritarian and creative education; these are among the things that gave us such economic boons as we still have today. Taxes can't be too high though, as this may discourage entreprenuership and adequate reward for business activity and investment. And unless taxes are raised periodically, lowering them has no stimulus effect at all when we need some of it.
Lowering taxes and increasing the debt alone does not provide enough stimulus, to either ease the deficit OR boost and encourage economic activity. And the record of history for the last 35 years on this is crystal clear. Trickle-down doesn't trickle. Government investment provides for both short and long term growth. This is what we will have to rediscover, when we recover from our amnesia in the 2020s. It will be a long and uphill climb back from the hole we're in, in our declining republic rapidly heading for banana republic status, while other countries, not slaves to Reaganomics as we are, are moving ahead of us.
We will have to grow more slowly, with slower population growth, but we can still grow, and there's plenty of wealth and intelligence in our country to make it vibrant and prosperous. We don't have to settle for a trickle when we can have an ocean of blessings. But it takes a long term point of view and not a narrow one of focusing only on allowing the free market to operate.
We need moderate interest rates to encourage investments and savings, which builds capital and economic activity. Thus we need a smaller debt, I think, so interest rates don't cripple government. And we need government to invest and help the people. Without government, investment remains short term and there's no infrastructure, both soft and hard kinds. Only such government investment allows the economy to expand. Tolls and barriers, as Trump wants, are no basis for a free national commerce that promotes economic activity.
The Clinton tax rates were moderate. It was the right balance to provide a basis for growth. Almost all economic and tech advancement depends on this government investment. Highways and bridges, railroads and ports, scientific research, support for the arts, help to the needy, support for free non-authoritarian and creative education; these are among the things that gave us such economic boons as we still have today. Taxes can't be too high though, as this may discourage entreprenuership and adequate reward for business activity and investment. And unless taxes are raised periodically, lowering them has no stimulus effect at all when we need some of it.
Lowering taxes and increasing the debt alone does not provide enough stimulus, to either ease the deficit OR boost and encourage economic activity. And the record of history for the last 35 years on this is crystal clear. Trickle-down doesn't trickle. Government investment provides for both short and long term growth. This is what we will have to rediscover, when we recover from our amnesia in the 2020s. It will be a long and uphill climb back from the hole we're in, in our declining republic rapidly heading for banana republic status, while other countries, not slaves to Reaganomics as we are, are moving ahead of us.
We will have to grow more slowly, with slower population growth, but we can still grow, and there's plenty of wealth and intelligence in our country to make it vibrant and prosperous. We don't have to settle for a trickle when we can have an ocean of blessings. But it takes a long term point of view and not a narrow one of focusing only on allowing the free market to operate.