Political Forums  

Go Back   Political Forums > Economy

We appreciate your help

in keeping this site going.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #11  
Old 07-05-2009, 04:27 PM
Charles Charles is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 10,348
Well, I suppose the United States is no longer the "Arsenal of Democracy".

But when it comes to cranking out fiat currency, we have no peer. And I'm afraid that it has become our turn to be the "sucker" in the next war.

So long as our elected officials retire wealthy, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Please don't ask me what I really think,

Chas
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 07-05-2009, 09:00 PM
Kamakiri's Avatar
Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 117
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles View Post
Well, I suppose the United States is no longer the "Arsenal of Democracy".
Kind of ironic to look back on what George Carlin had to say about US policy back in Vietnam. Paraphrasing from memory, he said:

"Go in, bomb the country, and whip a little industry on them

(yeahhhhhh)

U.S. industry....

(YEAHHHHHH)

Because those are the middle two letters in the word industry, US......."

The whole reason that we helped those countries out with "industry" is that we knew that the ability to produce goods was the key to long-term longevity and independence for a country. Now there's no more industry at home. What has happened to us?

Kind of brings it all full circle to Mike's original post. Large corporations won't invest in the United States not because they'd rather be in China, but because of the moronic capital gains taxes that this country levies. Small businesses can't get off the ground because of lack of venture capital. Now, of course you'd think that if the gov't did anything, it would have made making available venture capital a cornerstone of their bailout processes.

Instead, with unregulated cash, the banks decided to play a game of blind man's bluff, holding the money and waiting in the bushes to use that cash to buy other failed banks, thereby swelling their respective empire. Of course, all this did for the banks was to gain more defaulting debt, and find themselves in risk of collapse because of it.

I have to kind of laugh to myself, as with all the mergers of my personal accounts, Bank of America owns my ass
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 07-06-2009, 06:01 AM
Combwork's Avatar
Combwork Combwork is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Scotland
Posts: 658
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamakiri View Post

Bethlehem Steel foundries that have been dormant for 30 or more years ain't coming back.
Would that be impossible? If dormant means the same as mothballed and not destroyed, could your steel mills be restarted if the demand was there? To the best of my knowledge, you've not had a war on your own territory since the civil war. Whatever you get involved in, although as a proportion of the population your loss of life has been as bad as everyone else's your manufacturing base has remained undamaged. After WW2, not only did your own economy skyrocket, you were able to trade benifically with much of the rest of the world. If the demand is there, and no-one figures out a way to hit you on your own ground, war could be a real boost to the American economy. All you've got to figure out is who to hit first................
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 07-06-2009, 11:18 AM
Kamakiri's Avatar
Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 117
Nothing is technically impossible, but I live about 10 miles North of the great steel foundries that once populated this area heavily, and there's very little left of them around here. The technology back then was from the late 1800s, which enabled the Japanese steel mills, with then-current 1950's technology, to survive and flourish.

Picture the same kind of effort it would take to resurrect a steam locomotive that's been sitting as long. Possible yes, but......
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 07-06-2009, 12:35 PM
Twodogs's Avatar
Twodogs Twodogs is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Cowtown
Posts: 2,460
In a sickening irony, the biggest steel plant in KC got cut up for scrap.
__________________
"The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed at times, with the blood of Tyrants."
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 07-06-2009, 04:22 PM
merrylander's Avatar
merrylander merrylander is offline
Resident octogenarian
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Maryland
Posts: 20,860
Well that's private industry for you, they were so busy wallowing in the profits nothing was done to upgrade the facilities.

Of course even if Japan had better steel plants they were subsidized by the government, had a very interesting chat with a Japanes trade official in the San Francisco airport over a few beers - young folks just can't seem to hold their licquor any more.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:54 PM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.6
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.