Net Llama! wrote:
On 04/10/2006 06:13 PM, Michael Hipp wrote:
Net Llama! wrote:
On Mon, 10 Apr 2006, Michael Hipp wrote:
I'll stick my neck out. Here's how to solve the whole mess:
- Withdraw our military from any place that has more sand than trees
and
any place where they're not wanted. Maybe just withdraw them from
everywhere.
- Eliminate all imports of foreign oil.
- Eliminate all foreign aid or UN subsidies.
- End the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty (did I
miss any?)
- Use the $trillions savings from the above to fund a crash program of
energy independence (whatever it takes: solar, fuel cell, hydrogen,
biomass, ANWR, etc.).
Once the crazies in the middle east no longer had foreign oil money to
fund their misadventures, they would quickly dwindle back to obscurity
where they belong. If it weren't for oil and oil money we'd have little
(real) reason to care and they'd have no resources with which to cause
mischief.
Add to the above:
- Close our borders to all but the most trusted visitors.
- Expel anyone within our borders who has no legal right to be here.
- Add a 15% import tax to any goods or services crossing into the
country.
I was mostly with you up until that last one. You do realize that
the US
has a trade deficit right? The last thing we want is to piss off all
the
nations to whom we owe money, by raising tarrifs on their stuff.
It's *because* we are in a trade deficit that we should raise import
taxes.
By making them angry, at the very worst it would only advance the
schedule. What exactly do you think will happen when it eventually
becomes obvious to them all that the US cannot repay those debts? Or
can we just go on borrowing forever as our obese Federal government
finds more ways every year to spend more than we make.
We either don't repay the loans or we open up the printing presses and
pay them with severely devalued dollars. Either option amounts to a
default on the loans. It's only a question of when.
If anyone reading this takes exception to any of these suggestions,
realize Bush is about as likely to do any of the above as the
Democrats
are. But if they did, it could it hardly be worse than what we have
now?
I dunno, a severe depression, as a result of a tradewar with the EU,
China
& Asia (on the whole) would make things pretty damn bad around here.
We'd
look back on those "good ole days of the 'wars'" as an improvement.
Only in the short term. In the long term we would be much better off.
We might even learn to not repeat many of the excesses of the last 60
years.
Hah! You say that as if this is the first time we've made these
mistakes. We need to elect more intelligent people to office if we want
to end the stupidity. Re-electing idiots to a 2nd term only proves to
me that the majority of those voting have zero clues and/or aren't
paying any attention.
I believe it's the first time in the 230 year history of the US that we've
made these particular mistakes. At least on this scale. On a bigger view of
history "there is nothing new under the sun."
Not meaning to pick apart your words, but I don't think the intelligence of
our leaders is the root problem. GW is said to have a quite high IQ and it has
evidently been only to our harm. In his particular case, the root cause is
either one of just being evil to the core, or else he just has no firm grasp
on reality. Or both. Similarly for most of the people inhabiting DC and the 50
state governments.
The longterm viability of democracy as a form of government appears doubtful.
We're in this mess because "we" voted ourselves into it. The skills /
perceptiveness of voters appears to entropy every year like a degenerative
disease.
My prediction: We're looking at a complete collapse.
Odd that having foreknowledge of it in no way enables us to alter the outcome.
Michael
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