Glenn Beck, the Mormons, Christians, and politics

Good articles Bill:thumbs:

& without a strong manufacturing base, we just cant kick start the economy.

Thats why I keep beating the focus on the China drum because reliance on those people is actually killing us.

We need those 3 legs 1) Strong Fiscal policy 2) Sound monetary policy & (3) Fair exchange rate policy before anything gets fixed. Obama & company are just dragging their feet & you gotta ask why....they have on staff economist that know better.

 

And then there was the Chinese Trade Deficit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkc_tSTDKKM

 

That sounds like a ice enough ideal.
I think the problem starts because everyone wants more. This creates a cycle. Like if the farmers or food companies decide to raise prices for executive raises, then the consumers are going to want higher wages to maintain their lifestyles, form unions to get them, and other protection, which puts pressure on the employers, who then want to raise prices more and cut quality, and meanwhile the poor are being left behind in all of this, so then the government will want to raise taxes to help them (in part), and perhaps create regulations (including capping prices, etc), and let's not forget govt. officials wanting raises for a nice lifestyle themselves, nice new facilities (which I saw being build during the whole financial showdown of the 90's), and the busisnesses and other consumers wanting help from the govt. themselves. The businesses then continue to adapt to this, so that their income does not decrease, passing the expense back to everyone else. Who then wants even more higher wages, programs, etc. to maintain their lifestyle. And so it goes, around and around.

I'm not sure exactly where this started. But I think it's a combination of these things keeping the problem going, and not just taxes and the other government side of it. I guess government is easier (in theory) to pressure to take the first move to undo the process? Still for whatever reason, even that has not been working.

 

>Making people rich or poor is not the proper business for government. Making sure rich and poor alike have a system wherein they can deal honestly and fairly - while using their heads - and seek justice when there is dishonesty is a good Biblical application of government.

Never happened in the history of the world!

>Some of the first signs of this were the establishment of legal weights and measures and the establishment of a recognized currency that represents goods and services.

But this benefits the rich as much as the poor. Anything that benefits the rich is OK.

My Libertarian friends can't understand why paying municipal taxes is the same as paying condo dues. It doesn't matter to me if a road is fixed by a county road crew or a private contractor. Only things matters is who does the best job for the least money.

 

Sales tax holidays in Alabama bring about Black Friday-type numbers.

So, it would seem, people at least do more when taxes are less...

 

I have refused to buy something because of taxes. I budget and when the cost including taxes are too much, I refrain from buying until I have enough money, I find an alternative that may be less expensive, or I do without.

In fact, I am considering buying something in 6 months that a major factor will be the taxes. I could settle for my #5 choice and avoid taxes (legally) or my #1-4 choices and pay more money for the product but pay much more in taxes. I cannot justify the added expense in taxes even though I would rather the other products. BTW, I have wanted to purchase this for 4 years and have not but may now because of the decrease in costs and a way legally around taxes. I probably would not have purchased otherwise.

So, yes I have not purchased something because of taxes. As well, I have gone places where I could avoid taxes and I would purchase more of a product.

Taxes hurt businesses. This is called elasticity in economics. You want to increase spending and increase sales, cut taxes.

 

>Sales tax holidays in Alabama bring about Black Friday-type numbers.

>So, it would seem, people at least do more when taxes are less...

Did they pay cash? If not, was the tax rate more than their credit card rate? If not, did they get a good deal?

Did they buy toys or stuff actually needed? If they paid cash for food, then it was a legit savings.

In other words did the people in Alabama improve the state economy by making their personal economy worse?

I think this is a minor example of why the stock market goes up while the job market goes down. A long, long time ago Kruschev (sp?) said at a speach that we (USSR) will sell the rope to Americans that we will use to hang them." The USSR didn't hang us but the Chinese are much smarter than the Russians. We sell China a million dollars of precision machine tools and they sell us a billion TV sets.