DGS49
Diamond Member
The most disturbing fact about the American economy is that if Americans all decided to conduct their economic lives rationally - buy only what we NEED, and save the rest or pay down debt - the economy would immediately implode.
Restaurants would all go under, luxury cars would cease to exist, beer, liquor, and wine sales would end. You never NEED a bottle or a glass of wine, and forget about all those thousands of new wineries people love to visit; a total waste of money. Fitness clubs? What for? Go for a walk and do some calisthenics, you lazy bastard. Toy sales would virtually stop, high-end home sales would come to a standstill. Starbucks? Forget about it.
What about colleges and universities? For at least 75% of the students, they are wasting their time and money, and should drop out immediately and go get a job. But of course, there are no jobs, which is why many of them are there in the first place. How many colleges would survive, based on a rational estimate of the value of their product? Not too many, I suspect.
Get the picture? The examples of wasteful spending by individuals and households are endless.
But the health of our economy DEPENDS on three hundred million individuals acting irrationally and pissing away not only all of their money, but borrowing more and more to fund the continuous wasteful spending, every single day. If we stop...
Government economists fret about high credit card debt, massive student debt, and the lack of personal savings - mainly for retirement - but they can't push too hard on individual fiscal responsibility, because if we all acted reasonably, the economy would crash. As would essentially all of our governments, at every level.
Don't tell anyone.
Restaurants would all go under, luxury cars would cease to exist, beer, liquor, and wine sales would end. You never NEED a bottle or a glass of wine, and forget about all those thousands of new wineries people love to visit; a total waste of money. Fitness clubs? What for? Go for a walk and do some calisthenics, you lazy bastard. Toy sales would virtually stop, high-end home sales would come to a standstill. Starbucks? Forget about it.
What about colleges and universities? For at least 75% of the students, they are wasting their time and money, and should drop out immediately and go get a job. But of course, there are no jobs, which is why many of them are there in the first place. How many colleges would survive, based on a rational estimate of the value of their product? Not too many, I suspect.
Get the picture? The examples of wasteful spending by individuals and households are endless.
But the health of our economy DEPENDS on three hundred million individuals acting irrationally and pissing away not only all of their money, but borrowing more and more to fund the continuous wasteful spending, every single day. If we stop...
Government economists fret about high credit card debt, massive student debt, and the lack of personal savings - mainly for retirement - but they can't push too hard on individual fiscal responsibility, because if we all acted reasonably, the economy would crash. As would essentially all of our governments, at every level.
Don't tell anyone.