Since this country seems about as solvent as I am, I'm wondering......is there any country that is not up to its eyebrows in debt? Julie Krueger ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: lit-ideas Digest V1 #129 Date: 11/15/04 9:50:26 AM Central Standard Time From: _aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) , _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: -----Original Message----- From: Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx Sent: Nov 15, 2004 1:15 AM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: lit-ideas Digest V1 #129 In a message dated 11/14/2004 11:27:01 PM Central Standard Time, JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx writes: <<I'm not sure I want to be an American anymore. I said that three years ago. I'm pretty sure I don't. It's just kinda hard logistically to get off this island. Hi, Not to worry. That is what I've been thinking, lately. I just read: "To finance our binge buying overseas, we borrow $2 billion a day from abroad." Pretty soon, we'll all belong to someone else anyway. Well, our 'country's debt' anyway. I'm still figuring that one out. How will we pay if (or when?) it comes 'due'? A.A. It's like you or me going to the bank and buying a savings bond. In effect we are lending the government money and the government promises to repay us the money with interest. It works basically the same on a huge scale too. Other countries will buy U.S. debt instruments like bonds or whatever, the U.S. uses the money to, say, finance the war or pay Medicare or whatever, then we repay the money with interest. If we had the money in the treasury, we wouldn't need to borrow it. That's why the debt, as compared with the deficit, is in the trillions. The deficit is the amount we don't have on hand to pay Medicare or the Veterans, or the CDC, or the NIH, or whatever, and the debt is the interest we owe on the money we borrow to finance these and other things we take for granted. Other countries are willing to invest in the U.S. government because we've been known for our stability. That's one of the reasons NYC was targeted, because it's the financial hub of the country. If they destroy us financially, they destroy us. It's also why a nuclear terror attack would be so devastating, because unlike the $200 million per day for a year that the WTC took to clean up, it could cost trillions, far more than we could even borrow. Not to mention that countries would stop lending to us. It's also why it's so utterly stupid that the rich act as if they don't live here. They are the ones who have the lion's share of the income, so the lion's share of the incoming tax revenue stays in their pocket, since they pay *no taxes at all* by offshoring to the Caymans and other places. Any tax revenue, which is the only revenue a country has, comes nearly 100% from the middle class. It's also why it was such a big deal when Clinton balanced the budget and used pay as you go. He reduced our reliance on borrowed money. Marlena: Wonder what we'll do then and how *that* will come to pass...any ideas? Are our kids prepared and will they know what to do in order to buy some time so they will be okay and it will be THEIR kids who have to pay? <wry look> [did you like the choice of words <g>] A.A. Bill Moyers NOW last Friday interviewed an economics professor from Boston University (name and book escape me). This man said basically that the U.S. will be bankrupt in the next few decades. It's one of the reasons I am so against Bush. He is so focused on religion and increasing the wealth of a few that he is clueless to the economic crises under his face. And now that Republicans are in the majority, they can do what they want. None of these people are economists. They literally don't know what's going on. There is a push now to reform the woefully outdated tax code, further to that book I referenced a while back, so word may be beginning to spread. But the chances that enough Congress people read the book and can convince the ultra wealthy to part with their share is, well ... Certainly Bush didn't read it. Kerry was seen at least buying it. Marlena: It's quite the thought, anyway. A.A. Quite. Andy Amago Wondering which owners of our debt will be the first to collect-and in what arena of life-and how, Marlena in Missouri ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html