Can anybody explain why a government shutdown is a GOOD thing?

[fskimospy]

Yeah! Here comes the Magic Cupboard theory!

Debt is debt. Current projections have debt service taking the majority of our budget within a decade or so. Unless we're going to begin printing virtual money by the trillion, we have to radically cut our spending. If we do that, we're going to find it impossible to sell debt in dollars, so we're left with financing our own debt with made-up money via the fed. Already there's difficulty in selling longer term bonds in dollars. Eventually we'll have to pay for any imports with another currency. Then we'll be well and truly screwed.

All debt is most certainly not equal. Greece owed debt in Euros, a currency it does not print. Therefore it can in fact default on that debt. The US owes debt in dollars, a currency it prints. It is literally impossible for us to default on our debt unless we choose to. Since Greece has debt it can default on and the US has debt it cannot default on, the two are most certainly not equivalent.

If you believe the two to be equal, then by all means allow me to buy your house with a million Eskimospybucks instead of dollars. Debt is debt, so it's the same, right?

There are plenty of negative aspects to excessive US debt, so I have no idea why people need to invent wrong ones.

 

[wuliheron]

All debt is most certainly not equal. Greece owed debt in Euros, a currency it does not print. Therefore it can in fact default on that debt. The US owes debt in dollars, a currency it prints. It is literally impossible for us to default on our debt unless we choose to. Since Greece has debt it can default on and the US has debt it cannot default on, the two are most certainly not equivalent.

If you believe the two to be equal, then by all means allow me to buy your house with a million Eskimospybucks instead of dollars. Debt is debt, so it's the same, right?

There are plenty of negative aspects to excessive US debt, so I have no idea why people need to invent wrong ones.

Shhhh, don't tell anyone but we're planning on replacing the dollar with newly minted "corporate".

 

[charrison]

All debt is most certainly not equal. Greece owed debt in Euros, a currency it does not print. Therefore it can in fact default on that debt. The US owes debt in dollars, a currency it prints. It is literally impossible for us to default on our debt unless we choose to. Since Greece has debt it can default on and the US has debt it cannot default on, the two are most certainly not equivalent.

If you believe the two to be equal, then by all means allow me to buy your house with a million Eskimospybucks instead of dollars. Debt is debt, so it's the same, right?

There are plenty of negative aspects to excessive US debt, so I have no idea why people need to invent wrong ones.

So all we have to do is print money to pay our debt. Why that is great idea that has no drawbacks...

 

[fskimospy]

So all we have to do is print money to pay our debt. Why that is great idea that has no drawbacks...

I never said it has no drawbacks, what I said was that such a fact made our situation fundamentally different than Greece's, and the comparison between the two is wrong.

 

[charrison]

I never said it has no drawbacks, what I said was that such a fact made our situation fundamentally different than Greece's, and the comparison between the two is wrong.

Printing money to pay debt is not any better of a solution than defaulting on debt. They are both bad solutions to the same problem.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I never said it has no drawbacks, what I said was that such a fact made our situation fundamentally different than Greece's, and the comparison between the two is wrong.

Printing money is essentially the same thing as defaulting. You are just doing it incrementally instead of all at once. It has many of the same consequences as defaulting, and additional ones as well. The ability to devalue currency gives you some flexibility in the short run, but in the long run its the same problem whether you can print or not.

 

[DeadlyXboy]

You assume your points can fit in a conservative's tiny little brain. All a conservative will remember is that Republicans stood up against Big Gubberment.

I would say that your avartar is full of love !!!!!!:biggrin:
BLEACH's Queen Kuchiki Rukia,朽木 ルキア:awe:

 

[fskimospy]

Printing money is essentially the same thing as defaulting. You are just doing it incrementally instead of all at once. It has many of the same consequences as defaulting, and additional ones as well. The ability to devalue currency gives you some flexibility in the short run, but in the long run its the same problem whether you can print or not.

It most certainly is not the same thing as defaulting or anything even remotely close to it.