Austerity on Display

Sal wrote:

Contractionary policy is __________________ .

Now, try to imagine why that might be troublesome for an anemic economy.

Jesus.

Okay, let's try this one more time. And I really don't have to rewrite what I already wrote to this thread because you're a smart guy and you should be able to understand it. So this time just read through it more slowly and concentrate instead of letting your mind wander.

The reason "austerity" doesn't work, is because so much of the economies of these nations has been held hostage to borrowed spending, that any attempt to make sensible changes and try to control the borrowed spending is of course going to be recessionary.
It's all so out of control now that there is no solution that doesn't result in a lot of pain. Either you keep propping up the artificial economic bubble with this borrowed spending, OR you curtail the borrowed spending and deflate the bubble.
We face the same thing here.

That one short paragraph very well sums up the whole conundrum our country has put itself in. That one paragraph very well sums up the whole goddamn political wrestling match our country has turned into.

That paragraph states "the problem". But the solution eludes me.
I'm starting to become more and more convinced that there is no solution.
At least not one we'll be happy with.
The short term solution (no austerity) is just that. Short term. Leading to a worse situation in the long term.
The long term solution (austerity) makes the short term more unpleasant.
We're now between a rock and a hard place is about the best way to put it.

Stagnant wages/underemployment/devalued savings/rising cost of living/nanny-police state/social engineering/prohibitions...

I can't wait for the next solution.

It's really is not unlike a family who has leveraged itself to the point that it's maxed out it's credit card.
That family has three ways to go from there.

1. It can try to start living within it's means and very slowly over time start paying down that credit card debt.
But that means little Susie and little Johnie might can't go to college. That means the family has to start buying clothes from the Goodwill (like I do), it has to start buying food from the freezer in the back of Dollar Tree (like I do), it has to furnish it's house from garage sales (like I do), it has to get smart about how to buy used cars (like I do), it has to supplement it's income by other means (like I do), in fact it has to buy most everything it owns second hand (like I do) etc etc etc.
And don't get me wrong, because I know how hard that is for Mr and Mrs Susiejohnny. They aint never learned how to do it. It's a goddamn culture shock for them. They have always laughed and mocked people like me and called us "cheap", so becoming "cheap" is not easy for them.

2. The family can obtain more credit cards and then start putting the payments for the first credit card on the second credit card. And then the third. And so forth and so on.

3. The family can declare bankruptcy and absolve itself of it's debts.
Now this is the really interesting one. Because it's been preached to us in threads here that this aint gonna happen with the government simply because "the government can print it's own currency". lol
I'm here to tell you that God's Law overrules the "print it's own currency" law.
And I aint talking about nothing in no fucking Bibles. I'm talking about the fucking shit that is taught in the 2nd grade. It's called basic arithmetic. That is the real God's Law that applies here. And one of these days you're gonna find out that the "print it's own currency" lawbook is exactly what Judge Roy Bean said it was. A lawbook "for the whores to piss on".

Sal wrote:

Oh for fuck's sake, I give up.

I feel for you, Sal. I'd give up too if I was trying to challenge the law of arithmetic.
I feel for you because if it wasn't for simple happenstance, I could be in the same shoes you are.

But luckily I learned the law of arithmetic by taking apart an old slot machine when I was about 20 years old.
I kept wondering "how does that thing know to take in more money than it gives out"?
And then I started looking at how many of each symbol was on each of the slot machine's three reels (the lemons, the cherries, the oranges, the plums, the bell's and the bars).
I made a chart of all that. And then I applied that chart to, yes you guessed it, the law of arithmetic. And after some careful cipherin that Jethro Bodine would have been proud of, I figured out that machine was gonna keep 30 cents of every dollar I put into it.

After that epiphany I had about the law of arithmetic, things really got interesting.
You just cannot imagine how many people kept telling me "nah, I find the hot machines and only play those so I win", or "I watch someone play the machine and not win, so when he walks away that machine is ready to pay out", or "luck has more to do with it than anything", etc etc etc.
And the one that used to get me tickled the most, was the one that virtually everybody told me. I would ask them "how much did you win?".
And the answer was always "I won a so-and-so amount jackpot".
But when I then always asked them "but how much money did you take into the casino and how much did you come out with?", the answer was most always "I dunno". lol

In some ways, the law of arithmetic is like Jesus, Sal. You really have to accept it as your lord and saviour or you aint gonna be saved.
You need to get born again, Sal. And so do a lot of other Americans.

Govt math is one of those leftist academic tests. If you pretend it's a good idea they let you in the kool klub...

then you get to deride the people that see a naked emperor.

Let's talk about the fiscal impact locally.

Blue Angels entire calendar canceled for 2013.

That's a big chunk of change for the local vendors, etc.



Austerity hits home and it's gonna get worse.

What happens when the new normal is accepted as a way of life...?

Will those fed'rul "welfare" jobs ever come back...?

Do you think that if we ignore our fiscal and monetary situations that there will be no negative effects? Don't give me that same crap that austerity is the problem... it's a consequence of the problem. Remember the cry that the bailout and stimulus was to save the universe? There are realities and there is a price to pay... the eu states are no longer sovereign countries.

PkrBum wrote:Do you think that if we ignore our fiscal and monetary situations that there will be no negative effects? Don't give me that same crap that austerity is the problem... it's a consequence of the problem. Remember the cry that the bailout and stimulus was to save the universe? There are realities and there is a price to pay... the eu states are no longer sovereign countries.

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You go boy. Several years ago I stated that the Blue Angels shows should be canceled because we could not afford them....folk called me everything but a Patriot.

But I'm certainly not going to sit here and celebrate the loss of jobs in the private sector when there's a budget cut at DoD.

This is what happens when you fund a tourist economy with the U.S. Military budget. lol

The conservatives say they want to convert everything back to local control.
Well now they'll get their chance when the Island Authority meets today to try to find the money to promote the tourist economy without the federal involvement.
And in doing this, the Island Authority will now turn the Blue Angels into something akin to Jimmy Buffet. A paid attraction to keep the tourists coming. lol

I think I have a solution to this. Why not make the spectators pay an admission price to help pay for the air show. You could do that by increasing the bridge toll to $5 on air show day.

Bob wrote:I think I have a solution to this. Why not make the spectators pay an admission price to help pay for the air show. You could do that by increasing the bridge toll to $5 on air show day.

Most of the civilian airshows that feature the Blues charge an admission fee. I'm almost certain that the Pensacola Beach show is the only airshow (not on a military installation) that does not charge a fee to attend. I'm not sure where that money goes. Is it split between the local community, the promoter and the Navy?

bizguy wrote:

Bob wrote:I think I have a solution to this. Why not make the spectators pay an admission price to help pay for the air show. You could do that by increasing the bridge toll to $5 on air show day.

Most of the civilian airshows that feature the Blues charge an admission fee. I'm almost certain that the Pensacola Beach show is the only airshow (not on a military installation) that does not charge a fee to attend. I'm not sure where that money goes. Is it split between the local community, the promoter and the Navy?

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Oh hell no. It goes straight into Quint Studer's coffers.

He's the reason the Blue Angles (sic) shows were cancelled.