I never understood our economy that much. I don't see how we could build anything that would last on imaginary money that just kept exponentially creating more imaginary money to spend on a market to make more imaginary money. Then again, I guess that's no different than giving a piece of green paper you can actually hold any worth over the imaginary money.

Guess I'm just dumb that way.

Don't feel bad, some people don't even know what taxes are there for o_<

To feed the machine that opresses the masses?

Nah, otherwise it would be important. According to the guy Obama said should manage the nation's treasury, its alright to miss a few taxes. Must mean its nothing important, eh?

What?! Like hell the president needs to do anything. I thought he had a cabinet member and a committee of experts to do that stuff for him. Or a congress full of opposing goals that argue and bicker too much to do anything too quickly to avoid getting us in trouble like this.

...and yet nobody can live without it =x

We could. There are people that live without it. We're just not willing to give it a try.

Sure... no police, no medical centers, no welfare and of course, no technology other than that which you can make yourself. It leaves the door open to all sort of abuses. If you watched the movie "Escape from LA", that pretty much sums it up. Even those who "live in nature" are still inside a controlled territory which protects them at least a little, unless they live in antartica, which is the last and only place that nobody officially owns, but just try living there wearing only your birth suit and good intentions...

Never forget why man created society; you need to sacrifice a little freedom to gain some security.

never forget what Ben Franklin said: Those who would give up their liberty for a little security deserve neither and will lose both.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

One word; Balance.

Get ready for stagflation
It's the most frustrating thing to know that the multitudes of sheeple just don't know what's really going on with politics.

Thank you

So basically, inflation?
I love inflation O_O <3 It's SOO sexy.

But not in terms of economics...that inflation bad!

No such thing as bad inflation.

Not quite. If you have inflation, loans that are taken out become slightly easier to pay back with time.

This is a good thing.

Economics is a complex subject, and you can't sum any of it up with a “X is bad. Y is good.”

That assumes the loan interest isn't also tied to inflation. :P

The loans interest (at negotiation) is generally designed to account for inflation, yes (That's /one/ reason for interest in general). But if inflation exceeds that...

Besides, I didn't say inflation was good, I'm just saying that it is naíve to say “Inflation is Bad”

Nerdperv :P <3

If you're going around looking for me, you can admit it: I AM hot. <:3

I admit it, too...I am a stalker. >3

Well, if you are, find some interesting things on me! Things that aren't available on FA.

Of course, you don't have to prove ANYTHING.. <:3

Max Keiser frightens me. He makes too much sense.

Politics: completely pointless.

I already took matters status away from it.

Sorry, I take that back.

It's not politics, you mislabled it. This is just some economist.
Any chance I can see some peer-reviewed articles? I prefer to follow the assumptions and maths, not TV shows.

Especially those on stations funded by the Iranian government.

Actually, I don't care /what/ country someone, or their money, comes from. Science is science, and economics is a science.

I agree on that. My point is that TV shows funded by the Iranian government aren't exactly the best places to get accurate science or unbiased perspectives.

“unbiased perspectives”

Those don't exist. :)

(Accurate science? I don't care, I want to see the papers.)

So what you're saying is...
My Monopoly money is eventually going to be worth something.

And my Risk territories depreciate in value. O_O Kamchatka has no equity!?

It's all a scam. 83.6% percent of our tax money is used to feed Cthulhu.

Oops, got a head of my self.

Dear goodness we are possibly on the doorsteps of World War 3.

So? Far as I can tell we've been there since the Cold War. We've always been one idiot away from a global meltdown.

True, but if WW3 does break out it will be fought for the wrong reason.

Wars are almost never fought for the right reasons.... Or to use an old joke. "War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

I think the problem with the economy really started out with people living beyond their means. Too many banks lend money out to people who could barely afford to pay it to begin with, and when something came up, they had to default on the loan. I think the problem came from too many people trying to live outside their means. Hell, look at Canada! Their banks didn't give out loans to people who couldn't afford them, and their banking system overall is actually doing pretty good.

Also, Chris, I do agree with you about how a paper money based economy was actually one of America's more stupid ideas. I think really the main problem with it, is that most of the entire world still relies on a gold and silver economy. They really use the paper as a certificate for the gold. We however don't use gold anymore and thus are screwed by that.

To think, such as an advanced society of our own, we still trade either paper or shiny rocks to get things we actually need.

BTW: I do think taxes are actually necessary to the government, but they really should have completely looked over the stimulus bill before passing it. I'm willing to bet that if the two parties were in office (I.E. A Republican President and a Democratic Congress or a Democratic President and a Republican congress) the bill would have taken a lot longer to pass, but it would have been looked over and edited completely.

response below

“I think really the main problem with it, is that most of the entire world still relies on a gold and silver economy. They really use the paper as a certificate for the gold. We however don't use gold anymore and thus are screwed by that.”

Might I suggest a course in macroeconomics that explains exactly how fiat currency works?

Value is a funny thing.

this was a response to the comment above

There are explanations for how it "should" work but there are many things that wind up breaking that functionality which are routinely exploited.

Welcome to the real world?

Economics is a science, it doesn't have all the answers, but it /is/ the proper environment for discussing possible answers.