[Wayne07]

If putting people in the Army helped the economy, then you it would make sense now for the government to employ all the unemployed. Let's say we took 10 million unemployed people and put them in the army, or dig then fill ditches, and paid them $20k a year. We'd have to collect an additional 200 billion dollars in taxes from the people in the private sector. Every government employee, whether it is a bureaucrat in washington, a soldier, or an FDA inspector is a drain on the economy. Money that otherwise might have gone to producing something, is instead allocated by the government which is inherently inefficient.

btw, I am not an anarchist or a libertarian; I support strong armed forces, but recognize the cost to the economy.

[Cainkinison]

I am much more of a moderate then most people who post on here, but i do have a few thoughts. First i think that deregulating to much would have disastrous effects long term. Giving corporations to much power could be just as disasterous as giving government to much power. Second, all this talk bout FDR making things alot worse begs a very interesting question. If the FED did absolutely nothing, and let things develop without any interference, what would of happened if things had gotten proggressively worse? Keep in mind everyone that part of the depressions cause was zero accountability by large financial institutions. Yet we are seeing the same problem today. Far to much power in the hands of far to few people will always end in disaster!