On Nov 8, 2:07 am, "John W." <worthj1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Nov 7, 10:16 am, Declan Murphy <declan_mur...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > If you think raising capital gains tax to *27%* will pay for "change",
> > whatever that actually means, then you are dreaming.
>
> The fundamental issue is still, in my opinion, square on the shoulders
> of the citizenry. Debt used to be something people were ashamed of;
> now it's something of a badge of honor. My coworkers express surprise
> when I tell them the only debt I have is my house and car payments; I
> carry 0 credit card debt. I believe change begins at home; people are
> eager to scream that they don't want socialist policies, but in order
> to avoid that people have to act responsibly, and that includes voting
> responsibly and actually reading a diverse set of news sources and
> forming a non-biased opinion.

I don't have any debts anymore, but provided you can a) repay it, and
b) it helps you purchase something of tangible value to you, there is
no problem, nor should there be any sense of shame involved. My debts
were for education and establishing a business, and the final
repayment was only last month. I was very tempted to whip out the
credit card and buy a lovely bottle of Midleton Very Rare and some
fine champagne, but ended up celebrating with a cheapish bottle of red
and a cake instead. My parents recently took a once in a lifetime trip
through Turkey and Russia that wouldn't have been possible (for age &
health reasons) to have delayed any longer. It was debt funded
(personal loan and credit cards) and couldn't otherwise have been
undertaken.

Things probably look quite different when viewed from inside the
goldfish bowl, but reading the US economy from abroad and from the
point of view of an outsider, it isn't just the large consumer debt
and associated low savings, but also public sector debt that is a
major concern. Interest payments alone now account for 9% of federal
expenditure, which is equivalent to roughly half of the total defence
budget, and rising quickly. Without a significant increase in taxation
receipts (which would not be easy to do in the short term) or
significant cut in other outlays (for which there is no demonstrable
political will), interest payments alone will become the second
largest outlay after social security. There is a possibility that the
US will actually make Japan look like a country that has its shit
together.