BF2S Forums A Nation of Lawyers..

JohnG@lt wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

JohnG@lt wrote:

In 1969, we were 28.38% of the worlds economy. In 2010, we were 26.41%. So as a proportion of the worlds economy we've declined by a little less than 2% in the past 40 years. Our standard of living during that time has risen by quite a wide margin. Almost every home has multiple cars, multiple televisions and a home computer. Most people have cable, the internet and a full belly. Our country and our standard of living are doing quite well, even with the recession.

The question is how long that can last.

The eternal pessimist. It will last long until long after you and I are worm food. Even our debt to GDP ratio, for all the hoopla it causes, is below the worlds average. Should it be lower? Absolutely.

Our external debt is rather high.

Granted, it's still lower as a % of GDP than a lot of other nations.

JohnG@lt wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_public_debt

Here's the external debt one....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co … ernal_debt

Uzique wrote:

the process of judicial interpretation should always be contextualized and made contemporary


i'm just saying judges should be able to make modern interpretations and, as such, minor amendments

Did you even read what I wrote?  Fail.  You didn't address any of my arguments.

Deadmonkiefart wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Our external debt is rather high.

If you had your way, with a stronger Federal government, we would be in much more debt than we are currently.

Not necessarily.  I advocate the phasing out of SS but the implementation of state-based socialized healthcare.  I've leaned away from a fully federal system in looking at the varied results of socialized healthcare throughout the world.  Some countries, like France, do it well.  Other countries only have a system that is marginally better in terms of access than ours (like Canada).  Granted, healthcare is much more affordable in Canada.

The main issue with our healthcare system is cost.  Access is less of a concern, so removing various market barriers would help to decrease costs -- as would reforming patent laws.  If pharmaceutical patents were shorter in length, much of our costs would go down.  Also, tort reform is needed.   And as others have said, HSA's are another possibility.  We could devise certain tax breaks for HSA's, for example.

As for public debt in general, ending SS, minimizing our interventionism, cutting our military, and ending most corporate pork would decrease our public debts by a good amount.

The problem with our system is not only that it's hard to add things to the government -- it's even harder to remove them.  This is why I advocate having a more flexible system for making changes.