Last time I heard is that the US is at 12 trillion dollars in debt? Can this be right??

What does that exactly mean?

Does this mean the country owes money to foreign countries this amount?

Does this mean that it owes this money to the banks of this country?

Does it mean that it had cost this much to maintain the 500,000 US soldiers scattered in all the bases around the world and to finance the wars?

Does this mean that the politicians are stashing the money in their pockets?

Where exactly did all this money go and is it even possible to restabilize this debt?

I looked here on google on such countries like Liechenstein and Luxembourg, though comparitively small, they have no debt whatsoever and they earn alot more money per capita then most (if not all countries).

Why can't we get there? To have no debt, but instead a surplus to fund education for our children, have health care for everyone, repair the infrastructure of the country like improving our drinking water, bridges, highways, and social work activities to help those in need?

What will it take to get this country back to gear?

Let us talk frank here. Let us forget about the Republicans and Democrats at this moment. Let us say they all got fired today. Every single one of them.

What can we do to really get this country back to gear? Give me a detailed report and you are hired to run this country! Just joking, but seriously, we have to really think about this for our children, for the countries future, and for those who value life and prosperity in a healthy manner.


Please try to answer all the questions I offer here to enhance a better understanding of what your strategy is and to help encourage other posters to reply to come to a conclusion that might work best. Afterall, debates sometimes help find better ideas to resolving the problems that our government doesn't seem to be resolving at its best at the moment.

The best start would be to vote AGAINST the incumbent in your state.

Okay let us say this happens that everyone does what you say. Now what is your next strategy? What would you do to fix this country? Perhaps answer some of the questions I pose above to let us get a feel of what your strategy would do to help improve the status quo for every citizen in this country.

I propose a very very very big movie series, epic in both size and scale. This could employ everyone that lost work due to the recession at once, all working in some aspect of a movie being shot all over the country at once. Over time, the first movie would be finished, so work would then begin on a sequel, and another, and another. Until the economy stopped this tailspin and righted itself. All employees would be co-owners of the company, and therefore share a split of the proceeds. The first chunk of money would go to paying back the trillion or so we would need to borrow to make the movies happen and pay everyone. After that, half of the money could go to the country's debt, and half to the people that worked on making it. In addition, the full legalization and taxation of both prostitution and cannabis would be going towards the debt as well. I figure with good leadership (me as director) the whole national debt could be gone by 2012.

What I find amazing about these questions I ask is that every single person has answers to it that they think will actually help the country. They all seem plausible at one point or another, yet for some reason we don't have any of them actually working?

Why is that?

Why can't we seem to get actual positive results without destroying hopes for another person in the process. Is this how it works in Capitalism? Is this the foundation of life in general without Capitalism? Is this just how life works?

Well anyway what does it matter most would say? If it doesn't effect me why should I care? How many times I hear this also?

Shouldn't it matter?

When a political member let it be a Senator, President, Congressman, promises those who elected him or her to help improve a countries stability by putting in laws/ideas that will ensure prosperity and later we find out it didn't work, well who loses on this? The People or the Government?

I would think the people lose on this. The government continues regardless!

What needs to be done to where we can find a better system to ensure better results? What is your suggestion and conclusion?

The people have been losing since the beginning. The government is a bit bloated, granted, but they seem to do what we hired and elected them to. The ones that are immoral need to be fired or impeached or whatever. If more people paid attention to politics, things would be a lot different. That's step one. We need every single person of voting age all to get up and register and actually vote. Capitalism is pretty dog eat dog, but life feeds on life. It always has, probably always will. Still in order to really change things, not just the government has to change, people do, at a fundamental level. If everyone on earth was enlightened at once, all realizing that we all make our own realities, and therefore how to tap into the abundant wealth that would confer, then every single person could live like a millionaire. If humanity tried to just do good, instead of making a buck, we could give every person on earth that lifestyle with our technology from 1980. Of course, good is relative, I'm just trying to use shorthand as I don't like to babble.

I think there is a country that makes all of its citizens vote. I am trying to remember if it was Norway or Denmark? I think it is Norway.

If so, I see that they have a pretty good system going on at the moment, or so it seems.


Yet let us say that a entire nation votes and the majority are pretty much in peace with how the country functions as it is now, yet the national debt continues, the crime rises, the poverty rises, the inequalities rises, the education decreases regardless.

What does this do for a nation that didn't know any better? What can be done so that voting is really effective.

The last time I visited Mississipi, I had folks who didn't know what states where bordering their state? They didn't know who was the Senator of their state or any House of Represenatives, yet they voted because the man looks good, can play a instrument, or can laugh with the comedians.

How many people voted just because of a color, of a gender, of a ability that has nothing to do with politics.

How many voted for Bill Clinton just because he can play the saxophone, or Hillary Clinton just because she is a woman, or Obama just because he would be the first black president, or etc. etc.

Should their votes be taken seriously and why?

every vote, even one made on a whim matters. Granted, the people who study the politics of it will understand better who should lead. but without every single vote counting, the whole system is a sham. I'm still upset over the whole Electoral College way that it is currently handled. Some things in the history of this country should never have happened.

Okay so every vote should be taken seriously even if the man was paid 2000 dollars to vote for a man he didn't care for because he needed the money. I know, this probably doesn't happen. I don't know maybe it did. I wasn't there that is for sure, but my point is that the first priority is to get people to understand how a government functions and how we can get equal amount of time for each presidential candidate throughout the entire presidential campaign. I mean isn't it scary Bob and Sue voted because the presidential candidate knows how to tap dance together or wear fashionable clothing? I mean what is that going to do for that starving family at the moment?

And what is up with raising millions of dollars just to get some air time on television.

I mean what if a man has really good ideas that can truly improve the countries status, but just doesn't have the finacial backing of corporate lobbyists or other foundations? I mean why lobbyists anyway. They are only interested in making more money for their company and not the welfare of the people. At least many of them anyway!

I mean should each candidate get equal amount of time to express why they would be a good candidate. This doesn't go just for presidents, but for everyone running for a Congress position.

Equal opportunity should be enforced shouldn't it?

If not do you believe that this whole shirad of raising money quickly really serves a purpose when that money could have been used to feed the hungry, give additional health care to those who can't afford it, or distribute for educational purposes.

I just don't get it and probably never will, but in the end one should ask themselves if the system they live in really serves the people like we want to believe it to be.

The next step is to get campaign finance reform the way John McCain wanted passed to get money out of washington. Fire the crooks who are there now and if the noobs do the same crap keep firing them til we get honest people in there. I know its a crazy concept cause people are stupid to change anything and will only vote for the name they recognize.

That one is easy.

It's because the sheeple vote for whoever tells them exactly what they want to hear. Those people get elected, and then they immediately stop representing the people who voted for them and start doing what's best for their biggest campaign contributors.

Have you realized that Obama got elected on the basis of " change " but never really went into specifics about what the " change " was going to be??

He keeps speaking about the Health Care " plan "...but I have yet to see a plan from HIM. He just keeps telling us that we have no choice but to overhaul the system...but he's presented no viable ideas for doing so.

Australia makes all their people vote. It's mandatory.

I mean both parties have their faults. Alot of big promises when they run to be elected, but in the end just alot of hot air and false hope like you say. How long will the people of this country endure this? That I want to know.

I didn't know that. Thank you for sharing. Very interesting

All this debt represents is the Empire our country's banking system built. You and I are pretty much slaves to the largest banks in the world.

Through inflation we can offset the debt, but, that would involve creating more debt. This paradox is the evil of having a Central Bank, and using debt as currency instead of something like a precious metal.

To fix this problem, people must first accept that the government cannot afford to take care of them from cradel to grave. This means people must start taking on responsibility for themselves, and get involved in their community. I have often said, that giving money to a third party is no substitute for getting off your arse and cooking a meal or helping to babysit.

IF and only if, we can achieve the above, we can dismantle our central bank, and withdraw troops from every country around the world. (Currenty the U.S. has troops in 130 different countries.) This would almost eliminate war, because empires, like the U.S. would stop controlling and taxing every other country. By doing this we can focus on things like education, so our societies may evolve.

I believe prosperity can only be achieved by the individual, if that said individual is given the power to prosper.

This means smaller government.

So much energy can be redirected to growth...

Yup, people have become accustomed to EXPECT funds from the government. It's now a "Where's my Money attitude". A lot of Americans work long and hard and are never eligible to get any government help and I often wonder if those that get the money even appreciate the fact that someone else is working their arse off providing the funds through taxes.

Very good--I'm not the only one who thinks this way!!

A good ol fashend revaluation-- getting back to a constitutional form of government---might be an idea!

we've always been in debt (with the lone exception of Andrew Jackson's tenure, he paid off the national debt during his Presidency)

the key thing is the debt as a percentage of our economy. In absolute numbers its a staggering amount. As a percentage of the economy it's not all that worse than it ever has been

the Iraq and Afghan wars are drops in the bucket the biggest expenditure in our economy is Medicare and Social Security

The problem with the US debt was foreseen many years ago. There was a big push (but not quite big enough) to add a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. Texas has such a constitution. It was foreseen that if the spending spree continued, the amount of interest paid by the US government would gradually increase as a percentage of the yearly budget until a large jump in interest rates would double, or triple the percentage. This concept may not seem obvious but it would involve converting most government services into debt payments. The "critical" amount of debt was seen to be around two trillion dollars. It is now much more than that and the new health care bill alone is expected to cost a trillion dollars. The US is spending money it does not have like water.

A common "excuse" for overspending is comparing the annual debt to the gross national product and pointing out that the percentages have not changed much over the past recent years. The real numbers which should be compared are the annual interest payments made by the US government as a percentage of our annual budget and what they would be when interest rates return to historic averages.

The overspending is typically done by Congress to improve their perception of "power". Money is spent to pay back political supporters and to appease voters. This condition was described by Plato in approximately 400BC as a road to destruction for any democracy.

The only real cure for this disaster is a Balanced Budget amendment to the Constitution requiring about ten percent of the the national debt to be paid off each year we are not in a "Declared war". It is not going to happen. When the world stops buying treasury bills, as they are doing now, the interest rate will skyrocket and the bubble will burst.

The current interest payments by the US are about what the military budget was not very long ago.