Are you of the mind set that the government has a duty to fix the?

Question

economy or of the belief that the market will take care of itself by making corrections ?

Answer 1

That's what Hoover said and look what happened.

D Rocker said it best.

Answer 2

The market will take care of itself by making corrections as the result of human behavior, but that doesn't mean the results will be beneficial, overall. The government can't fix the economy, but it has the power to provide incentives to the private sector to encourage human behavior in ways that will fix the economy. It has duty to provide incentives that benefit the most people.

Answer 3

Look at it this way.  In Ohio, the Federal Government has forced the Cities to up date the Sewer system.  The tab is 5 billion dollars. As of today, their will be no matching funds from the Feds.  The Cities must come up with this money and have the construction completed in 20 years. From a fiscal standpoint, it takes 40 years for a City in the midwest to digest such a mandate.  The Federal Government's Environmental Protection Agency refuses to provide us more time.  In a related matter, many of our cities are dealing with foreclosures as a result of the mortgage melt down and the ensuing recession.  Property tax reciepts are down as a result.

The Federal Government is somewhat of a blunt instrument, it is not synchronized with the States and Cities which takes away our home rule.  This is the classic argument made by States Rights advocates.  To their point, at the Federal level our Government is it's own worse enemy.  Local governments need to be empowered with full funding of block grants and greater flexibility for Federal funding that gets to the heart of 1-2 issues.  I will tell you those two issues in just a moment.  Federal Government is to clumsy to develop nimble and timely policy that benefits the masses.  

As a result, I am of the opinion that the market cannot police itself, when we look at the mortgage dilemma, the loss of pensions at Enron these are strong examples.  To add insult to injury, the Federal Government is incompetent, we know this to be true with the still lagging response to Hurricane Katrina (2005) victims not to exclude Misssissippi and Alabama.  What we need is leadership in this country that does not work against the economic interest of families and small businesses.  It is these two entities we need to make a concerted effort to provide a competitive platform to survive. If we can keep Government's role short, sweet and to the point we benefit.  Any multi-pronged effort that has protracted Government involvement is a guarantee for complicated results. If business can balance self preservation and market competition by restructuring it's business case, America wins.  A shining example is Walmart. In the not to distant future you will see Walmart build physically smaller stores versus the behemoth Walmart Super Stores. Walmart has found that when they enter a community, the family stores should not be obliterated because of their new neighbor.  Employment at Walmart and "Pete's market" need to co-exist because "Pete" has invested generations of local business services that the community honors and continues to patronize.  This approach comes closest to describing a so called fix along with lines of accountability.

Answer 4

They want the dollar to die...

Answer 5

the market WILL NOT fix itself.  when recessions start they continue to get worse as peoples confidence falls.  this was proven in 1929 and ever since then we have been attempting to correct recessions before they become depressions.

it also happend several times prior to 1929 (i think the big one before that was around 1850 but don't quote me on that)

Answer 6

imho, the problems of the economy are mostly caused by the government and its idiotic policies.

i'd sure like the government to fix their policies, and I have no confidence that they can actually see what the problems are, so I have no confidence the remedies will be better than doing nothing.

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example:  total energy consumption in America has been incresing steadily for the past 230 years.  yet, we've made it our national policy that we shall build no significant energy production facilities [last one I know of was the coal mining operations in remote Wyoming starting in the late 1980s].

basic economics tells you what'll happen -- as demand goes up and supply doesn't, prices will rise.

you're paying the result in $3 gas at the local station.

the same type of error has been made with ethanol [we mandated much higher demand without providing any higher supply].  you're paying the result at the grocery store -- $4 milk.

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we continue to tax production of everything and expect the economy to grow even though the second law of economics is that any tax will cause lower output of the thing taxed.  so we tax working and wonder why people aren't working.  we tax investing and wonder why our national savings rate is zero.

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we prohibit further housing construction in selected cities and so rents and prices there skyrocket.  rent control is enacted to try and save the tenants but speculators enter and buy the buildings so they can convert them to condos and make a fortune.  we end up with ever fewer rental units and ever more pricey housing that people can't afford to buy.

so the poorer people move out and then spend large sums commuting to work -- which burns fuel !!

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i think the economy would right itself just fine if we'd only get government out of the way.

Answer 7

The government has a duty to do what it can to help the economy. The "invisible-hand" does not work.

Answer 8

If the market was just reacting to something else then I would say the Government has no responsibility to step in and correct it since it would likely work itself out.

However when you start to look at all the factors having an effect on the economy and the market (housing crisis, supprime loans, credit crunch, endless war, etc. ) then you would have to think the government needs to step in and help fix things.

Considering most of the elected idiots helped get us into this mess, I can't be too positive that they will do something to get us out of it. I gotta believe they should be spending their time doing this instead of looking at whether Major League Baseball players took some performance enhancing drugs.

Answer 9

re: economy -

I don't trust a government that, for decades, has not been able to balance a checkbook or pay down debts like I have to.

No way they can fix anything more complex than a screwdriver.

(T. Kennedy is master of that technique)

Answer 10

The state has the responsibility to fix the market because it will affect the country if not properly handled.