Don't look at me, I voted for Kodos.

 

So you don't have a mortgage yourself and you consider anyone who does a profligate spender who should refrain from buying a house until they can do it with cash. Good for you.

Bridges fall down when people start believing "cutting government spending" is the solution to all problems. And hen the bridge falls down, the state has to borrow a bunch of money to rebuild it. It would have been cheaper to properly maintain it, but no tax/no spend precluded that option. The economy isn't a political problem, it's an economic one. And blind adherence to political platforms will never fix a real problem.

 

The U.S. has forgiven almost every foreign debt since WWI so this is nothing new. Now if we can just get the other countries to go along with it. Oh wait, most owe us money so we'd lose.

 

Didn't a bunch of banks and nations just wipe debt off their ledgers after WW2? Could be wrong

 

 

I think that's because the records were physically destroyed...could be wrong though

 

Cutting spending IS a solution. The only reason we've been able to amass such an amazing debt that is our nearly $15 trillion deficit is because the USD is the world reserve currency, and we happen to own the printing presses. How can you say with a straight face that there is no option but to continue going deeper in debt? When I don't have money for something, I gasp cut spending. Bridges fall down because money is blown in some areas and not spent where it should be. For example, spending $2.2 trillion overseas instead of rebuilding infrastructure here and being one of those legendary "job creators."

There's nothing wrong with getting a mortgage. There's something wrong with giving loans to people that shouldn't get them, housing prices skyrocketing because of a "economic boom," with all signs pointing towards it being an obvious bubble (along with repeated ignored warnings from people years before), but riding the train for personal benefit until the (admittedly dumb) population is left with huge mortgages that are significantly higher than the true value of their home, no job to pay for it, and it being completely impossible to sell due to the purchase price being much higher than its current value. But don't worry, those poor banks will have their debts paid, while the (admittedly dumb) people with no jobs and a huge mortgage on a house they'll never sell for enough money to pay off the debt are left homeless. Yes, ultimately it's their fault for getting in the loan, but when you have news telling you how amazing the housing market is instead of the truth that it is unsustainable, I can't help but have some pity for them.

Banks don't deserve to have their debts forgiven. US prints/throws money at everything to delay the inevitable collapse.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/...ound-sand.html

If countries decided to stop accepting dollars, which many (such as Libya) have considered, we'd all be up shit creek. If we lost world reserve status, it'd be a huge domino effect of countries not wanting to accept our currency for product, which would cause a few issues considering we don't produce much of anything. Fortunately we have a sweet arsenal of weapons and military along with powerful allies that also don't want their USD to become useless, so the chances of this happening are slim. I mean, we sure taught Libya a lesson.

 

Back to the gold standard!!

 

She's hot, even better! Lead me..... but please don't eat me.

 

Nunco, a mortgage is a secured note assuming you don't falsely value the underlying asset (ala S&P/Moody's CDS ratings). Fail to pay and the bank is made whole again. What is the E.U. going to get guaranteed from Greece, olives?

When I said to cut spending I allowed an increase in taxation. That is the moderate path. My gut says, "hell, reduce spending and don't take another dime out of my wallet." But that is not a political possibility. My belief is the US government (including state gov) is oversized and doing too much. Smaller .gov sounds good to me. We probably disagree about why gov exists. I say they need to ensure my Bill of Rights liberties (one e.g. defend our soil), protect my property rights, and provide utilities that are too big to privatize (road construction/maintenance). Not a whole heck of a lot more than that (laissez faire).