FISCAL CLIFF EXPLAINED Simply.... Poor old USA.

[Mark Pavy]

But you don't want governments pulling back on spending at the same time individuals are -- the government is not a private household. If anything, you want and need government to spend when the times are the worst for the private citizen. If my neighbor cuts his personal spending, it doesn't necessarily affect me, but if my government cuts its spending, it may very well affect me -- I may even lose my job because of it. Trouble is that when times are good and tax revenues are healthy, the pressure to cut government spending isn't there. But I think it's wrong to think of a public entity in the same way you think of a private family.

hmmm, it's all relative. The theory of cutting government spending has got to be taken in context as to how much they spend or have spent in the years gone by. Should Greece have cut their spending and changed their budget years ago? The fundamental problem the World over is that Governments are popularly elected, the party that offers the best deal to the voter wins, it doesn't matter whether election promises are financially viable, nobody cares, one party offers you $1000, the other party offers you $1500, who are you going to vote for? This might be a simplistic example, but you get the point. I heard a great saying the other day that sums up this fundamental problem.

Once upon a time I used to work for a living....now I vote for a living.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I always love it when somebody from a foreign country explains to us how America is doing things wrong, and what we need to fix our country.

It's for reasons like this that I wish discussions about politics were outlawed on forums like this.

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

I always love it when somebody from a foreign country explains to us how America is doing things wrong, and what we need to fix our country.

It's for reasons like this that I wish discussions about politics were outlawed on forums like this.

Countries are just lines on a map, ideas should not be turned away or disregarded simply because they came from a different country after all the United States plays a huge role globally not just in foreign policy but financially and even in the entertainment sector though copyright law.

 

[Martin Weiss]

While this is a very important discussion, it really does not belong in this forum.

Next thing we'd be discussing gun laws, EU membership and energy policy.

Thanks for having kept the discussion civil.