Superintendent for a Day

[Disco Pickle]

Clearly "spend everything you make and take out loans to buy the shit you can't afford" has worked so well for the world.

My idea is just fucking CRAZY compared to doing it like we've been doing it.

[Doktor Howl]

and that having a higher national savings rate would be a bad thing.

ok man.

Ask the Japanese about that.  They tried it that way, back in the 80s, and learned what happens when people don't spend like mad bastards in a consumerism-driven economy.  Low retail sales = no economy.

I fail to see why this is such a difficult thing to wrap your brain around.

That's a major simplification of why Japan crashed that leaves out a lot of the OTHER major reasons the economy crashed, and there was nothing "libertarian" about the Bank of Japan's inflationary monetary policies.

Okay, so tell me how declining retail sales spurs an economy, or even maintains one...Rather than leading to a downward spiral.

I am all ears.

Their property bubble burst due to loose monetary policy fueling mal-investment and driving up property prices beyond their true value.  Sound familiar?

This meant lower retail sales at home, but since they were still a major exporter, we were still buying a lot of their goods over here.

Rather than do what they should have done and pull a Volker on their interest rate to suck in the inflation as quickly as possible to allow a real recovery, they did the same thing we're doing right now, pumping in more money to try and reinflate the bubble.

The biggest difference is that their banks just kept lending money they had little chance of seeing repaid.

Okay.  That doesn't explain how lower retail sales HERE will generate or maintain the economy.  Is this one of those "if we lower the rate of income, we'll have more income" things?  Because it seems to me that less retail sales = less jobs, which means less money for retail purchases, which means less jobs, etc.

And investing?  Oh, that's rich.  Because that shit was JUST FINE in November of 2007, right?

[AFK]

I would take 4th grade and teach them all about ME, THEIR FUTURE DICTATOR 

You should teach them how to draw dragons. 

[Doktor Howl]

Clearly "spend everything you make and take out loans to buy the shit you can't afford" has worked so well for the world.

My idea is just fucking CRAZY compared to doing it like we've been doing it.

Okay.  You tell us how to get off the 3rd rail, here.  What's your plan for completely restructuring our economy without upsetting the apple cart?

[Elder Iptuous]

high school.
firearm safety with a trip to the range.

[Doktor Howl]

Also, I'm kind of curious, here.  Where to invest?  The banks are crooked, the stock market's a sham, metals are for fools, real estate is basically valueless.

[Disco Pickle]

Clearly "spend everything you make and take out loans to buy the shit you can't afford" has worked so well for the world.

My idea is just fucking CRAZY compared to doing it like we've been doing it.

Okay.  You tell us how to get off the 3rd rail, here.  What's your plan for completely restructuring our economy without upsetting the apple cart?

I've got to go back to work, lunch over.  I'll try and come back when I get a few things done.  

Sorry for derailing this shit Cram, it wasn't my intention.  

[Doktor Howl]

Clearly "spend everything you make and take out loans to buy the shit you can't afford" has worked so well for the world.

My idea is just fucking CRAZY compared to doing it like we've been doing it.

Okay.  You tell us how to get off the 3rd rail, here.  What's your plan for completely restructuring our economy without upsetting the apple cart?

I've got to go back to work, lunch over.  I'll try and come back when I get a few things done.  

Sorry for derailing this shit Cram, it wasn't my intention.  

Nobody ever lets me play their libertarian games.

Dok,
Is like Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

[Cramulus]

not a derail, don't sweat it.!

"What would you teach kids" was a sneaky way of asking people how they think the world could be saved -- without provoking starry eyed idealism or cynical doom and gloom defeatism. Good discussion, anyway.

[Cain]

I would teach the kids that we are actually going on strike on Thursday, because our government refuses to read easy to understand graphs, and so class is cancelled.

Because this is actually happening.

[Adios]

10th grade.

How to fix shit around the house.

[Doktor Howl]

I would teach the kids that we are actually going on strike on Thursday, because our government refuses to read easy to understand graphs, and so class is cancelled.

Because this is actually happening.

What?

[Cain]

I would teach the kids that we are actually going on strike on Thursday, because our government refuses to read easy to understand graphs, and so class is cancelled.

Because this is actually happening.

What?

Teachers gotta pay more into pensions, because apparently the cost of public sector pensions is "spiralling out of control".

Whereas the government's own economists have known for several years that this year is going to be the most expensive in terms of costs, and from here on in the cost to the public is going to decline, with no changes needed.  Revised estimates after the impact of the economic crisis came to the same conclusion.

So we're striking.

[Doktor Howl]

I would teach the kids that we are actually going on strike on Thursday, because our government refuses to read easy to understand graphs, and so class is cancelled.

Because this is actually happening.

What?

Teachers gotta pay more into pensions, because apparently the cost of public sector pensions is "spiralling out of control".

Whereas the government's own economists have known for several years that this year is going to be the most expensive in terms of costs, and from here on in the cost to the public is going to decline, with no changes needed.  Revised estimates after the impact of the economic crisis came to the same conclusion.

So we're striking.

I don't suppose the MPs are taking a cut in their (public sector) pensions?

[Cain]

They've heroically "accepted" a pay freeze, of their £65000 per year, not including "legitimate" expenses (second home in London, money for trouser presses, paying peasants to clean out the moat, paying for a flat for your rent-boy etc).