Posted on 05/04/2012 11:20:26 AM PDT by pinochet
When young Americans read the history of the New Deal Era in the 1930s, they ask themselves how the FDR administration could have imposed a 90 percent top tax rate on rich Americans. From the New Deal Era to the 1970s, Americans believed in tax and spend policies. From the 1980s, Americans adopted borrow and spend policies.
Tax and spend policies are more moral and more justified, than borrow and spend policies. In the old days, Americans believed that all spending had to be paid for, and that one could not spend money that he did not have. Americans viewed borrow and spend policies as being extremely immoral, because they did not believe in imposing financial burdens on their children and grandchildren.
Americans were mostly hostile to indebtedness, and believed in living within their means. Personal bankruptcy was viewed as a sign of moral weakness. The most common debt obligations were home mortgages, and people did not take out loans just to buy the junk we are importing from China. The idea of printing money to cover federal budget deficits was unthinkable. America was the world's largest lending nation, and did not have to borrow money from any country. I think there is a direct link between the decline in personal morals since the 1950s, and the increase in bad ways of managing money.
Young Americans are trained to follow the propaganda of the advertisers and their peer groups. They are not taught how to think for themselves nor to question authority. They are sheep. Older generations had to make every penny count so they were figured things out better.
You can blame public schools for the decline. The more recent you get, the more likely the schools are at fault.
Yes, the Founders understood money far better than most of the last three generations. For more on the subject: Medium of Exchange.
William Flax
Well, ever since the 60s, young people have been told over and over and over that self control is bad. If you wait to have sex until you are married, you are some repressed nerd. If you don't drink and do drugs, you are a square. If you don't live a hedonistic lifestyle, there is something wrong with you or you are hopelessly naive.
Our society is reaping what it sewed. Kids (and many adults) who have no self control, no sense of personal responsibility, no shame at living off the public teat, no thought that they have to work and support themselves. Kids and a lot of adults think that society owes them a living, and that "the rich" should pay for it.
But for more on Keynes, the sociopath who formalized the corrupt practice of spending the next generation's yet unearned wealth: Keynes & The Keynesians.
Keynes whole approach was an attack on the principle as old as the Ten Commandments, that life is a multi-generational pursuit, in which each generation tries to provide a sound foundation for the next. It is implicit, for example, in the Fifth Commandment. But the sociopath was not interested in doing anything to protect the next generation--to offer an understatement.
William Flax
Leaving aside the fact that you seem to be confusing monetary and fiscal policy, high marginal tax rates do not increase government income and suppress growth. The Great Depression, the New Deal, Social Security and the Great Society, as well as Jennings Bryant are sufficient evident that Americans of the past did not understand money very well at all.
Modern politicians have learned from the Social Security scam that the American electorate looks kindly on taxing their grandchildren to pay for their indulgences.
Can’t spend what you don’t have and just having it doesn’t mean you should spend it.
At least that’s the crazy idea that was drilled into my head.
Our founding fathers knew of the dangers of paper money. Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying that bankers are dangerous to liberty and prosperity.
FDR took an 18 month Recession and
extended it into a 10 year Depression
by employing Keynesian Economics.
Money???? I think you meant Obama Bucks.... you know, from his staaaaash.
>>>You cite the wrong era to make the point. FDR also trashed the Dollar, devaluing in from 1/20.63 to an ounce of gold,
I understand what you are trying to say. I am not a fan of FDR and the New Deal, and my favorite President of the 20th Century is Calvin Coolidge.
I believe in low taxes and low spending. The point I was trying to make, was that the New Deal era preferred high taxes and high spending, rather than the current immoral policy of high borrowing and high spending. Conservatives are more outraged by high taxes than by high borrowing. The huge federal debt burden is a crime against American children. I consider it a form of child abuse, because it turns our children into debt slaves, before they even join the debt market.
In India and Pakistan, they have a horrific practice called bonded labor, where young children are enslaved by businessmen and feudal lords, to pay off debts incurred by their parents. It is recognized as one of the world’s worst human rights violations. Americans are doing a similar thing to their children.
>>>Leaving aside the fact that you seem to be confusing monetary and fiscal policy, high marginal tax rates do not increase government income and suppress growth
I oppose high tax rates. I prefer a government that follows policies of low taxation and low spending.
However, given a choice between more borrowing and higher taxation, I prefer higher taxation. The huge debt burden is a crime against American children.
Alas, today, even many FReepers think a return to gold would be a bad thing.
“my favorite President of the 20th Century is Calvin Coolidge.”
My 11th grade US history class seemed to like him when we were going over the 1920s yesterday. I find that encouraging.
When you lose that--as with the Sociopathic economics of Keynes ("in the 'long-run' we are all dead"); or with the present insane immigration policy of the United States, or with efforts to destroy traditional marriage, or with efforts to continue an educational system that honors those who attack the people's heritage, rather than those who built it;--you steal the birthright of your posterity.
The colossal debt is but one facet of a very sick perspective. But it is part & parcel of what drives the Left.
William Flax
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