Supporting the Economy

Don't question it. Buying things is fulfilling. You know you want to.

Pfft, commie.

Actually, thats the Keynesian method of improving the economy. The Paul Krugman championed method that unfortunately our elected officials have shoved down our throats for a few decades now.

Cash For Clunkers, incentives for people to buy new homes, etc. All methods to compel us to go further into debt thereby "supporting" the economy in the short term. Doesnt make a lot of sense, does it?

I really, really wish there was a way to put this more delicately, but you have no idea what you are talking about.

Are you honestly surprised? Actual buying and consuming of stuff is just one way to create, or rather, to shift wealth, anyway, and I dont expect a guy earning north of 500k per year to really, actually understand how a family living on below 100k a year and a bad mortgage is feeling, is living, is working. Its entirely out of their points of reference and experience. Not maliciously, its just a simple fact that humans arent too good with having a realistic view of a situation they never experienced, or havent experienced in a long long time.

So, why not use the trigger words that have worked marvellously for years now, to try and get the faceless masses to play the way you want? What do you have to lose?

"Making Money" is, at least in the USA, about the most accepted excuse for almost any legal, or at least barely non-criminal, business behaviour. If it makes you money, its fair game, and everyone seems to accept that. Business ethics is a joke, more than a real concept, in many of the business schools today. Hell, in my own its an optional course giving so few ECTS points its barely worth doing.

I think the last 8 years have demonstrated to the current generation in power how well the "big lie" still works, and how gullible people are. Once you are no longer inhibited by morals or ethics, you can really milk that cashcow that is the naive, perhaps trusting, and consume-addicted citizen. And again, its something that the USA has actively encourated, has termed the new "american way of life" so many times now, I cant even fault those who go out and indeed spend money they dont have... its social pressure, peer pressure, in a way.

In the end, that is capitalism. That is how its supposed to work. Everyone goes for the maximum gain within the few boundaries of the law, sometimes beynd, and uses every trick in the book to make money.

If you say so.

We may have to agree to disagree on that one though.

ETA...you realize that my post was in response to his alluding to the point that borrowing and spending is part of some sort of right-wing program, yes?

If you think Im wrong in stating that its not then we probably need to reevaluate who doesnt know what.

I'm paying a local contractor to fix my bathroom with money that I don't have, so I have to borrow it from my parents. So somewhere in there, I'm helping the economy, I think.

My post was aimed more at your mention of Keynesian economics and what ideas Krugman advocates. If you weren't being serious about that, I'll gladly admit I misread the post. If you were being serious, it would be interesting to know what you think Keynes' ideas are and what you think Krugman advocates.

Tell it to Castro, Paco!