Originally Posted by TTSH

You have obviously led a very successful charmed life... and that's really great. I feel good for you and your family. Some of us, for different reasons, have not had it so good... but no matter. The point is that if you should still be able to see what the OP is saying... namely that the government printing money non-stop and having State and Federal debt & obligations spiraling out of control isn't a really good thing for anybody long-term.

Not all for sure, but some of us and our children and our grandchildren are going to pay a mighty price for this someday. Fortunately, I think I'll be gone before the worst of it comes home to roost. Unfortunately, my children will still be around and one of them falls into the 'working poor' family category that will never own a house, a new car or have any sort of real retirement. You have to be invested in something today or you'll never be able to keep up with the inflation that's coming on wages alone. It would be nice to be able to stop it or at least slow it down a pinch, but I fear we are past the point of no return.

Originally Posted by Dougaz

Not so much charmed. I couldn't afford college but I could go to work. As a young man, I commonly worked two (2) jobs at a time, 60 80 hours a week and it was worth it to me. When my friends financed a new, super cool car, I saved up my cash and bough used, with NO financing. I was the "working poor" but while I was/am uneducated, I made a point of earning, saving, studying, investing while developing relationships with men as mentors that were 30 years older than me.

When I got married, I paid for the entire affair with less than $1,000.00 - No $30K weddings for me and I never looked back.
Bought my first home for cash ($40K) and sold it a few years later for $95K, rolled the $95K and additional cash into a new home that was also paid in full the day we moved in.

Charmed my behind ..... It's called dedicated work ethics which by the way is exactly why we're seeing these idiot protests and riots .... Because those people have no work ethics and are demanding that Uncle Sam provide for them, cradle to grave.

Charmed indeed.

Originally Posted by Onomea

We were discussing this earlier this year, the concern about the gummint issuing stimulus checks leading to hyperinflation, and I noted that Japan has been engaged in deficit spending, big time, since their economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, but the result has been deflation for much of the period since. (Japan is No. 1 in debt to GDP ratio at nearly 240%.) So it ain’t necessarily so that deficit spending causes inflation.

As for inflation in our own country over the past 30 years:




• U.S.: average annual inflation rate 1990-2019 | Statista

(For the record, I don’t claim to understand any of this. Ruminating upon it, and the different learned opinions out there, are just a way of passing the time for me.)

Originally Posted by pharmer

I had J M Keynes "economics" explained in detail early '70's by some very learned professors. "Buy everything you want right now, pay for it with cheaper dollars down the road" (oversimplified, I know). The same folks were quick to throw out "Guns vs Butter" which stresses "smart spending." When I give the "basic economics talk" to teen age students, I always take them to the "United States of Pizza." Basically you can go Keynes however reality is a "Pizza" and the more money you print the more slices you get. Trick is to make the pizza bigger. War makes big pizza fast, Covid lockdown/ uncertainty/ unemployment don't make no pizza at all. I haven't delivered (pun intended) the second half of that, yet. Joe

Originally Posted by johngalt

One problem is they are cooking the books. The factors used to calculate inflation hasn't remained constant over those 30 years. I can't remember under which administration this happened, but they rejiggered the formula to exclude food and energy prices. You know, those categories that are showing inflation. I'm sure that isn't the only time.

Originally Posted by Ματθιας

........We have $50 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities. There's no way we're ever going to pay that - even if we taxed everyone at 100%.

Originally Posted by pharmer

Better add $100 TRILLION to that number. Go back a page to the "Debt Clock, we are at $153 TRILLION and adding about a million every 3 seconds. Joe

Originally Posted by pharmer

.....
But Basically you can go Keynes however reality is a "Pizza" and the more money you print the more slices you get. Trick is to make the pizza bigger. War makes big pizza fast, Covid lockdown/ uncertainty/ unemployment don't make no pizza at all.

Originally Posted by Absalom

Sorry, not at all. Exactly the opposite.
That’s why the US was at its record debt right after WW II, approx.

Originally Posted by Dougaz

[B]Not so much charmed. I couldn't afford college but I could go to work. As a young man, I commonly worked two (2) jobs at a time, 60 80 hours a week and it was worth it to me. When my friends financed a new, super cool car, I saved up my cash and bough used, with NO financing. I was the "working poor" but while I was/am uneducated, I made a point of earning, saving, studying, investing while developing relationships with men as mentors that were 30 years older than me.

Originally Posted by Six Gun Shooter

I'd take as many worthless pieces of paper like this one as I could get.