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  • richie the ...: 
  • Comments (4)
  Honestly Obama, WHERE are you going to get the money for this? You cant keep printing fresh new bills, there has to be a limit somewhere.

  2008 Dec 06 06:37 PM | Link | Reply
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  • in balance: 
  • Comments (3)
  where are we getting the money to fight wars on three fronts?
  
  for you, the "limit" must have been back when we should have shored up our infrastructure during the short-lived "boom" times.
  
  "a stitch in time ...."
  
  during the '90s boom, the local voting majorities supported politicians who gave even shorter-lived tax "refunds" back to "the people".
  
  if you live in California, how do you feel about the once-reduced-now-sharp... increased vehicle registration fees?
  
  if you're a student or have kids in college, how do you feel about the 1500% increase in public college and university tuition and fees since the early '80s? higher tuition, but fewer teachers, fewer courses, fewer and more crowded classes and longer graduation times.
  
  costs of higher education have gone up drastically despite the substantial savings that many universities have achieved by installing green lighting and heating systems, solar particularly.
  
  hope you enjoyed your wafer-thin refund while it lasted.
  
  hope you're able to hold on to your job or keep your business going OK!
  
  
  On Dec 06 06:37 PM richie the diver wrote:
  
  > Honestly Obama, WHERE are you going to get the money for this? You
  > cant keep printing fresh new bills, there has to be a limit somewhere.

  2008 Dec 06 07:00 PM | Link | Reply
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  • sylviechen: 
  • Comments (18)

  • •
  • mapscapital.com
  Ok, its about (1) rebuilding highways,roads,bridges and (2) getting our internet broadband speed up to international standards. Let's see...
  
  1 .Construction requires workers skilled in a profession, not day laborers. Most govt projects require contractors to provide union labor so that leaves out most of the rest of the unemployed as qualified. Well, they can walk the new roads to the next promising town looking for work.
  
  2. Internet broadband is held hostage by three sets of crooks: the cable companies, the telephone carriers, and the optical fibre pipelines that form the backbone. The cable guys don't need additional jobs to upgrade their service since most of the improvements will be at the hardware level. The telcos are shedding jobs to improve productivity. The pipeline carriers are bleeding cash with a lot of dark fibre (unused) in place, fully depreciated so no jobs here.
  
  Obama has bold macroeconomic views but they do not translate to the micro economics required to get employment up. The only bright spot is health care. Why? it remains the least productive market segment based on human capital . But, if more people are unemployed, less health care coverage will be available, leading to less paying patients, therefore lowering productivity even more, because the ratio of patients to care providers will fall.
  
  Maybe his wonks working for him are not that bright after all.
  

  2008 Dec 06 09:01 PM | Link | Reply
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  • otbricki: 
  • Comments (179)
  Highways would be a bad investment because if the economy recovers energy costs will come back and people will drive less. Try mass transit, nuclear power and similar stuff that will work in an era of high oil prices.
  
  
  
  

  2008 Dec 06 09:07 PM | Link | Reply
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  • DrBenway: 
  • Comments (79)
  Why waste resources to create crappy low-skilled jobs and print money to drive the inflation up? If you want to really help, suspend capital gains taxes and make investment more attractive. Or even better, do nothing, and let the economy recover on its own. The Fed and and the Treasury have done enough, just let the weak companies fail and the strong survive.
  
  It amazes me how politicians are rushing to do something, no matter how stupid or ineffective it is, so they can take credit for "fixing the economy" when it recovers.

  2008 Dec 07 12:40 AM | Link | Reply
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  • Nikola: 
  • Comments (188)
  I think it would be better to print money and give it as bonuses to the CEOs of financial companies and banks, and then wait for that money to trickle down from the yacht makers down to the pizza delivery guys.
  
  That's a much better way to create jobs.

  2008 Dec 07 02:39 AM | Link | Reply
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  • richie the ...: 
  • Comments (4)
  Interesting points, but I'm going to be just fine. I'm more worried about John Q Taxpayer unable to to feed his kids.
  
  
  On Dec 06 07:00 PM in balance wrote:
  
  > where are we getting the money to fight wars on three fronts?
  >
  > for you, the "limit" must have been back when we should have shored
  > up our infrastructure during the short-lived "boom" times.
  >
  > "a stitch in time ...."
  >
  > during the '90s boom, the local voting majorities supported politicians
  > who gave even shorter-lived tax "refunds" back to "the people".<br/>
  >
  > if you live in California, how do you feel about the once-reduced-now-sharp...
  > increased vehicle registration fees?
  >
  > if you're a student or have kids in college, how do you feel about
  > the 1500% increase in public college and university tuition and fees
  > since the early '80s? higher tuition, but fewer teachers, fewer courses,
  > fewer and more crowded classes and longer graduation times.
  >
  > costs of higher education have gone up drastically despite the substantial
  > savings that many universities have achieved by installing green
  > lighting and heating systems, solar particularly.
  >
  > hope you enjoyed your wafer-thin refund while it lasted.
  >
  > hope you're able to hold on to your job or keep your business going
  > OK!

  2008 Dec 07 09:34 AM | Link | Reply