What is the problem with our economy?

Question

I have my own answers, but I don't want mine to be true. I'd like to see some of your ideas, get a vantage point, and create my own views.

Answer 1

Hoarding of BLACK MONEY

Answer 2

There is no "special" problem with our economy.  The economy is made up of thousands of tiny parts that somehow all work together.  Milton Friedman made a career out of searching how all the tiny parts fit together.  He believed that the less government intervention, the better.  Not everyone agrees with him.

There are wonderful things about our economy.  Even a poor person probably has a car, a microwave oven,  clothes that protect them from the weather.  Millions of people have jobs.

But we can't ever stop trying to do better.  It will expensive to pay for universal health care but no one likes to see a child die from a preventable disease.  We want everyone to have a job that gives them dignity and keeps them from being exploited.  

It's always a balancing act.  It will never be perfect.  Would you ever consider running for public office?  I think you should do it.

Answer 3

Corupt Government being bought by large corporations.

Big business raping those who actually do the work.

The 10% of America who holds the true wealth, and chooses to find more ways to increase it by the rape and pilleging of every other american, and by the loss of the Word UNITED in United states , because of our needs to just survive in this economy we are unable or unwilling to stand togethr as a people and say ENOUGH.

Exxon  posted 118 billion dollars gross profit in the first 1/4 of 2008

Exxon posted 9 billion dollars net profit in the first 1/4 of 2008

How much money is enough, and at what cost. What would happen if instead of 9 billion in the first 1/4  they post 3 billion

because they chose to lower the prices in gas.

Would food be lower in price YES, and everything else across the board. Would the Common worker have more money to pay their bills YES

What about banks.

How much could they choose to lower their rates and still make a wonderful profit , and how would it effect the Working persons ability to pay their bills, and put more money in their pockets for life and family.

How many unneeded government sectors could be removed to lower government spending.

Why is it congress can give themselves raises while the people whom they are said to represent are losing their homes and lives.

GREED.

Government coruption, and corprate greed.

Medicare wasteful spending

military wasteful spending

Lobbying by big bussiness to buy the votes and manipulations of government to satisfy the greed of large companies.

Remove lobbying

Reconsruct Medicare

Tax the h**l out of greedy companies

Lower taxes on the Working class

have independent investigations into government spending and policy. Increase the watchdogs.

Throw Corupt politicians in jail

Base the amount government employees get (congress /senate) on what POSSITVE CHANGES they make to actually help america.

Give the people more of a voice in choosing policies.

The sad truth is it will only get worse.

I realize there is more to increases in gas pricing than just large companies, Oil speculation, The Opeq Nations, supply and demand and so on.

But the government knew decades ago this was COMING

what if all the money and resources available to the us was put inot alternatives for fuel. SOLAR, WAVE, WIND, HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS, NANOTECHNOLOGY IN BATTERIES.  The government did not seek those things becauseoil and gas and electric companies lobbied to keep it suppressed for what reason corprate greed.

Now we have a planet in danger, and a failing economy because of the choices and coruption in government.

Senator McCain made a very interesting statement.

He offered 300,000,000 dollars. 1 dollar for every person in the USA to anyone whom can find a way to power with out OIL, a super battery so to speak.

What would we be doing today, if that offer was laid out in 1970. or 1980. How man y people companies would have gone after that prize, and where would the US economy be today if we were not so dependant on Foreign OIL.

Answer 4

Nothing is wrong with your economy, it is working exactly as it should.  Trillions of dollars in overspending and trade deficit have lead to a dollar that has plummeted against other currencies.  (It doesn't matter what it's spent on). Since you import a great deal of your oil and gas products now that has driven the cost of everything that uses them up, including food, and anything else that needs transportation or machinery.

Throw on top of that other nations like India and China that are catching up technology wise and increasing their demand for something that sells on a world market and the price goes up for everyone.

Now the sub-prime mortgage crisis.  This is a problem.  People who were borderline able to handle the debt load they were getting into ran into not being able to handle them.  They started losing their houses due to job-loss, interest rates or whatever making the mortgages unpayable.  When a few people start losing houses everyone's confidence drops off, and that exacerbates the problem.  People slow down spending which slows down production, which results in more job-loss.......and so on into a recession.  Too many houses lost drops housing prices which means others might as well walk away from their mortgages because the value of the house is now less than what it will cost to buy it.  Those people should never have been approved for the size of houses they were buying.  In the past banks actually cared about what people could afford.  Now they are just greedy and with what appeared to be a solid economy they thought they would be safe even if a high percentage defaulted.  Of course the government is going to bail them out using taxpayer money.  So much for capitalism, true capitalists don't bail idiots out.  

The biggest problem is debt-load in America.  Americans spend more than they  make because they have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.  That lifestyle is getting more and more expensive while the peoples wages are not keeping up.  Eventually that leads to a big fat crash, and it may be here.  People have to stop overspending, which itself will lead to more trouble, the economy has been sustained by over borrowing for years.

Answer 5

Billions of dollars borrowed from China and other Asiatic countries to finance two wars of choice. The so called PATRIOTIC corporate America is outsourcing most American jobs to India and Asia and therefore, the American taxpayer is footing the bill. If you need more justification for the messes that the Bush administration has put our country, talk to your Washington "Sold off" representatives with your VOTE! And I don't mean just republicans!!!

That's how I see it.

NDS

Answer 6

I suspect greed as well. All of Friedman's "chunks" have slipped at once, for instance, the mortgage crisis was brought on by finance companies extending credit to those that shouldn't have received it, to gain cash flow, and thus when the borrowers (banks, financial companies, corporations, not just Joe average workaday consumer) defaulted it took money out of the system. When US oil companies got greedy with their profit margins and inflated prices it costs more to ship and produce anything, which raises the prices for food, etc...The worst part of the circle of economic life is that it is always the common man that ends up carrying the burden.

The answer, I hate to say, lies in politics as well. As long as American Idol is on, and all the common man does is  complain without acting, this c**p will go on forever...

Answer 7

Greed