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OK, let's discuss your reply...
Posted on: September 9, 2016 at 10:11:10 CT
JeffB MU
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aj_arete01: Now let's address them individually.
Are student loans rising?
Yes, that's because university presidents realized that Americans would do whatever it takes to attend college since almost all good paying jobs require it. Now libertarians would say that we should rid the system of most financial aid. While I agree that would bring tuition costs down, I'd guess that would still price low income and middle income Americans from going to college because they have not saved properly.
"Student loans are rising" is an understatement of vast proportions. Students are graduating with student loans in the tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the statistics of how many students with college degrees are working as waiters, waitresses and bartenders is staggering. The majority are getting jobs available to anyone with a high school degree. Meanwhile the educational system in the U.S. has been spiraling downward at an alarming rate. As someone on here noted the other day the high schools used to teach Greek and Latin, now the colleges are teaching remedial English. Refusing to give students school choice, apparently the only choice Obama & Hillary want to give is the choice to kill your unborn children, NOT to go to flee from a horrific school where the goal is to survive and get through the day rather than to get a valuable education and skills.
Are food stamps on the rise?
Yes and it's again based on the changing needs of a global economy where technology and a surplus of low skilled workers abroad have brought down wages for ordinary Americans. Is that Obama's fault? I'd say no because technology and its impact started over two decades ago. I'd blame our K-12 and higher education systems more.
I would say that it is because the government has been forcing poor people out of the workforce. First they are given horrible schools and a school system that has no competition and little incentive to improve and few consequences for failure. It is also because of government programs that reward irresponsible behavior and the breakup of the nuclear family, the building blocks of a healthy society. It also punishes responsible behavior, such as taking away the government benefits from a grandmother who was raising her grandchild and squirreled away some savings by scrimping and saving and doing odd jobs for other people. When the government found out that she had a little money saved for her grandchild's college education, they took away all of her government benefits. BOOM.
They also make it ILLEGAL to hire someone with limited job skills or maturity via minimum wage laws. In the old days companies and individuals could hire young kids or the disabled or those with limited job skills but now the government will come down hard on anyone paying less than some government defined minimum amount. That took away the bottom rungs of the economic ladder that many young kids had been able to take advantage of in the past. Now the government in effect mandates that they stay home and gives them money and other benefits to do so. It creates a culture of hopelessness and sloth.
Did federal debt rise exponentially under Obama?
Yes, but it was already projected to rise exponentially as Americans got older and Social Security and Medicare spending rose with it. Now I agree that Obama made it worse in 2010 with his stimulus bill, but I'd counter that it was necessary to mitigate the recession. In fact, I would have argued that the stimulus should have been greater. Are we facing consequences from high debt? I'd agree, but I'd point the blame toward the Fed more for not raising rates sooner, though they were forced to do this because Congress refused to cooperate with Obama.
Actually, history has shown that the Keynesian ideas of government spending to bring a country to prosperity is not only wrong headed but counterproductive and even terribly dangerous. Yes, it can and does bring short term benefits, goosing the economy to make things look better for a little while, but it is a temporary high, like crack cocaine, and like crack, there is a penalty to pay when the drug wears off. It is true that it can make things feel good in an economy for the short term, but ever larger amounts are needed to keep the inevitable crash from coming... for awhile. Unfortunately it is not a long term solution, and in fact makes life much worse than if such a foolish course was never started. Often it is much, much worse, even catastrophic.
It results in a misallocation of assets, the results of which are not recognized for many years sometimes, much like the effects of a drug addiction may not show up for some years. The damage may be hidden for awhile, but it very much there and it is very real and the consequences can be brutal. We saw an inkling of that with regards to the financial crash and crisis that began in 2007-2008, but the coming one will be far worse because of Obama's reaction to ramp up the drug dosages far beyond what anyone has ever attempted in the past. It has kept our collective heads barely above water, but we can only tread water for so long. The reckoning is coming and it is going to be catastrophic.
Is money printing rising?
Yes and refer to my response to previous question to see why. While there has been little inflation, I am concerned that this could result in a future correction of equity markets in the future. Since Obama did appoint Yellen, you can blame him for that.
I don't think you realize the full extent of the damage that has been done to the economy, nor the economic fallout that will result. It's a little like a story a guy told me about when he found out that his wife was totally screwing up their finances. He was making pretty good money and their lives seemed to be humming along fine. At some point he found a notice from the bank that said that they were far behind on their payments and were ready to foreclose on the house. He knew there must be some mistake and called up the bank to tell them that there records must be screwed up. He found that his wife had been hiding the mail from him and she had not made a payment in a few months. He started calling around and found out that their credit was destroyed, credit cards were maxed out and past due and even in collections. He was completely baffled.
They ended up getting a divorce and he never was able to get to the bottom of what had happened. She was a bit profligate in her spending, but maybe there was a drug &/or gambling problem involved. He never found out.
The moral of the story is that you can't go by appearances as to how one's financial system is going. Things can feel rosy one day and crash in on you the next. We have seen this phenomenon with families, with companies and with nations.
Austrian economists were warning about what was coming in the years leading up to the crash in 2008. I remember getting newsletters detailing the underlying problems and warning of the inevitable day of reckoning. But for several years the mainstream economists claimed they were chicken littles and everything was going perfectly according to plan. They called it the Goldilocks economy, not too hot and not to cold, just right. Ironically, Goldilocks' perfect day had its own day of reckoning.
Peter Schiff was one of many warning of the coming tragedy and he called the housing crash to a T, and in amazingly accurate detail. You can read it here:
Fed to People: It's Not Our Fault
You can also see some video clips from news shows in the years leading up to the crash where he was jumping up and down warning about the tragedy that was ready to befall us, and some of the talking heads literally laughed at him. Bernanke is even featured telling them that there were good reasons that housing prices had been rising so dramatically and for so long and that the underlying economy supported it. He also assured the interviewer that housing prices had never dropped across the board throughout the history of our nation. Nothing to worry about here:
Are health insurance costs rising?
Yes, but if you look at that graph, they're actually growing at much slower rates. Given an aging population where people are more likely to be sick, I'd still rate this as progress.
Is the labor force participation rate falling?
Yes, I'll acknowledge that. However when it comes to prime age working adults (25-54), it's risen some. Most of the decline can be attributed to Baby Boomers retiring. Also, we can say that more adults are acquiring more college education, which might hurt the labor force participation rate now, but their prospects for better employment could get better in the future.
As for the next two graphs, workers' share of economy and median family income, I've already addressed this before. The culprit is technology.
As for home ownership, the decline can be attributed to the Great Recession and questionable lending practices that eroded the wealth of many ordinary Americans. However that graph is outdated and doesn't highlight how much the housing market has improved this year. Home prices are on the rise and more homes are selling.
Are student loans rising?
Yes, that's because university presidents realized that Americans would do whatever it takes to attend college since almost all good paying jobs require it. Now libertarians would say that we should rid the system of most financial aid. While I agree that would bring tuition costs down, I'd guess that would still price low income and middle income Americans from going to college because they have not saved properly.
"Student loans are rising" is an understatement of vast proportions. Students are graduating with student loans in the tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the statistics of how many students with college degrees are working as waiters, waitresses and bartenders is staggering. The majority are getting jobs available to anyone with a high school degree. Meanwhile the educational system in the U.S. has been spiraling downward at an alarming rate. As someone on here noted the other day the high schools used to teach Greek and Latin, now the colleges are teaching remedial English. Refusing to give students school choice, apparently the only choice Obama & Hillary want to give is the choice to kill your unborn children, NOT to go to flee from a horrific school where the goal is to survive and get through the day rather than to get a valuable education and skills.
Are food stamps on the rise?
Yes and it's again based on the changing needs of a global economy where technology and a surplus of low skilled workers abroad have brought down wages for ordinary Americans. Is that Obama's fault? I'd say no because technology and its impact started over two decades ago. I'd blame our K-12 and higher education systems more.
I would say that it is because the government has been forcing poor people out of the workforce. First they are given horrible schools and a school system that has no competition and little incentive to improve and few consequences for failure. It is also because of government programs that reward irresponsible behavior and the breakup of the nuclear family, the building blocks of a healthy society. It also punishes responsible behavior, such as taking away the government benefits from a grandmother who was raising her grandchild and squirreled away some savings by scrimping and saving and doing odd jobs for other people. When the government found out that she had a little money saved for her grandchild's college education, they took away all of her government benefits. BOOM.
They also make it ILLEGAL to hire someone with limited job skills or maturity via minimum wage laws. In the old days companies and individuals could hire young kids or the disabled or those with limited job skills but now the government will come down hard on anyone paying less than some government defined minimum amount. That took away the bottom rungs of the economic ladder that many young kids had been able to take advantage of in the past. Now the government in effect mandates that they stay home and gives them money and other benefits to do so. It creates a culture of hopelessness and sloth.
Did federal debt rise exponentially under Obama?
Yes, but it was already projected to rise exponentially as Americans got older and Social Security and Medicare spending rose with it. Now I agree that Obama made it worse in 2010 with his stimulus bill, but I'd counter that it was necessary to mitigate the recession. In fact, I would have argued that the stimulus should have been greater. Are we facing consequences from high debt? I'd agree, but I'd point the blame toward the Fed more for not raising rates sooner, though they were forced to do this because Congress refused to cooperate with Obama.
Actually, history has shown that the Keynesian ideas of government spending to bring a country to prosperity is not only wrong headed but counterproductive and even terribly dangerous. Yes, it can and does bring short term benefits, goosing the economy to make things look better for a little while, but it is a temporary high, like crack cocaine, and like crack, there is a penalty to pay when the drug wears off. It is true that it can make things feel good in an economy for the short term, but ever larger amounts are needed to keep the inevitable crash from coming... for awhile. Unfortunately it is not a long term solution, and in fact makes life much worse than if such a foolish course was never started. Often it is much, much worse, even catastrophic.
It results in a misallocation of assets, the results of which are not recognized for many years sometimes, much like the effects of a drug addiction may not show up for some years. The damage may be hidden for awhile, but it very much there and it is very real and the consequences can be brutal. We saw an inkling of that with regards to the financial crash and crisis that began in 2007-2008, but the coming one will be far worse because of Obama's reaction to ramp up the drug dosages far beyond what anyone has ever attempted in the past. It has kept our collective heads barely above water, but we can only tread water for so long. The reckoning is coming and it is going to be catastrophic.
Is money printing rising?
Yes and refer to my response to previous question to see why. While there has been little inflation, I am concerned that this could result in a future correction of equity markets in the future. Since Obama did appoint Yellen, you can blame him for that.
I don't think you realize the full extent of the damage that has been done to the economy, nor the economic fallout that will result. It's a little like a story a guy told me about when he found out that his wife was totally screwing up their finances. He was making pretty good money and their lives seemed to be humming along fine. At some point he found a notice from the bank that said that they were far behind on their payments and were ready to foreclose on the house. He knew there must be some mistake and called up the bank to tell them that there records must be screwed up. He found that his wife had been hiding the mail from him and she had not made a payment in a few months. He started calling around and found out that their credit was destroyed, credit cards were maxed out and past due and even in collections. He was completely baffled.
They ended up getting a divorce and he never was able to get to the bottom of what had happened. She was a bit profligate in her spending, but maybe there was a drug &/or gambling problem involved. He never found out.
The moral of the story is that you can't go by appearances as to how one's financial system is going. Things can feel rosy one day and crash in on you the next. We have seen this phenomenon with families, with companies and with nations.
Austrian economists were warning about what was coming in the years leading up to the crash in 2008. I remember getting newsletters detailing the underlying problems and warning of the inevitable day of reckoning. But for several years the mainstream economists claimed they were chicken littles and everything was going perfectly according to plan. They called it the Goldilocks economy, not too hot and not to cold, just right. Ironically, Goldilocks' perfect day had its own day of reckoning.
Peter Schiff was one of many warning of the coming tragedy and he called the housing crash to a T, and in amazingly accurate detail. You can read it here:
Fed to People: It's Not Our Fault
You can also see some video clips from news shows in the years leading up to the crash where he was jumping up and down warning about the tragedy that was ready to befall us, and some of the talking heads literally laughed at him. Bernanke is even featured telling them that there were good reasons that housing prices had been rising so dramatically and for so long and that the underlying economy supported it. He also assured the interviewer that housing prices had never dropped across the board throughout the history of our nation. Nothing to worry about here:
Are health insurance costs rising?
Yes, but if you look at that graph, they're actually growing at much slower rates. Given an aging population where people are more likely to be sick, I'd still rate this as progress.
Is the labor force participation rate falling?
Yes, I'll acknowledge that. However when it comes to prime age working adults (25-54), it's risen some. Most of the decline can be attributed to Baby Boomers retiring. Also, we can say that more adults are acquiring more college education, which might hurt the labor force participation rate now, but their prospects for better employment could get better in the future.
As for the next two graphs, workers' share of economy and median family income, I've already addressed this before. The culprit is technology.
As for home ownership, the decline can be attributed to the Great Recession and questionable lending practices that eroded the wealth of many ordinary Americans. However that graph is outdated and doesn't highlight how much the housing market has improved this year. Home prices are on the rise and more homes are selling.
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MESSAGE THREAD
I prefer credible experts, not biased leftist organizations(nm) - Ragnar Danneskjold MU - 9/9 09:49:22OK, let's discuss your reply... - JeffB MU - 9/9 10:11:10