economics

**zelazny** · May 15th, 2003, 01:02 PM

I just read up a bit on salon.com (i'll get the urls of the articles as soon as i find them back) and there's all this gloom and doom about the global and national economy, things are going down the crapper here in europe, but from what i gathered it's not much better over there. To be quite honest, i'm getting the image that the us is plunging itself in even deeper bankrupcy (sorry for being so blunt). Is it true? All i can see and hear are the media, but you guys are in the middle of it.

**gnosis_within** · May 15th, 2003, 02:13 PM

well, all we know over here is filtered through the media as well, but this is what we are hearing: we seemed to have a budget surplus not that long ago, but now we have bush asking congress to raise the national debt limit (the various wars we are engaged in have done nothing but add to the problem). on top of that, bush is pushing a huge ($350 billion, i think, which is about half of what he originally wanted) tax cut to stimulate the economy, but many politicians are wondering where this money will come from. so, in answer to your question, yes, our economy is going down the crapper as well.

on a personal level, i have seen no effects of the economic problems. i have been working at the same restaurant for about a year now, and business has stayed about the same. the only slow down was a few days at the beginning of the "war" in iraq, but that was only because people were being shocked and awed; who wants to go out to eat when they're blowin' stuff up on tv?

**zelazny** · May 15th, 2003, 11:56 PM

Lol.. this topic could very well be bankrupt at this moment too .

**SHATOUSHKA** · May 16th, 2003, 12:50 AM

surplus... deficit... blah blah blah...

it can all be wiped away in a matter of minutes.
all it takes is for someone to say:

"ya know what? to hell with this! i'm gonna
start this over with a blank slate."

viola.

all that you see now is just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo....

they coulda saved lots o'lives back in '29

tsk tsk

**zelazny** · May 16th, 2003, 12:57 AM

A blank slate is kind of... well... a big step.
Then again, seeing how almost every government cringes at the idea of giving power away (at least, not without the right payment) and frantically tries to hold power, it would be a refreshing thing to see a government just 'letting go' and starting over again.

It's really funny how every form of.. well power-wielding institution tries to hold on to that power, as some sort of anal-retentive that is afraid that it cannot survive or work without that power.

TastinGood · May 16th, 2003, 03:16 AM

There was never a budget surplus. It was only presented in such a manner on paper so dumbfucks would see it and think that there was. With Clinton, he unified the budget and lumped in social security with the government budget in order for shit to look all nice and rosey. However Social Security is all locked away and means absolutely nothing. As Al would say, it was in a lockbox.

There was never a true budget surplus.
It was a sham.