Is Government Spending Really That Bad?

This isn't a hashed out theory yet, so please DISCUSS instead of jumping to conclusions and judging, but:

Is the money the government spends helping or hurting the economy? What would happen if it was slashed in the manner proposed in other threads - like to bare minimums similar to if it was a business that had to turn a profit?

If the government cut spending and laid off non-essential personnel, that would free up untold billions of dollars that would be returned to citizens via reduced taxes , but that money is, for the most part, already in circulation via salaries paid to government employees. After a period of adjustment, the private sector would absorb the majority of those laid off employees and things would balance out.

However, what about the deficit spending? Deficit spending effectively creates new money and dumps it into the market. Technically it's debt that would have to be "paid back" via increased taxes or reduced spending at some point in the future, but let's be honest, that's NEVER going to happen. The federal government is not going to get on a Dave Ramsey plan, pay off all of the bonds, and never issue any more. And if all that deficit spending went away, what would happen when roughly a trillion dollars just fell out of the economy?

 

The government doesn't produce anything. They are like corporate office personnel, some necessary, some are there because they can be.

First thing that needs to go is the use or lose budget bullshit. More money is wasted because of that than any one thing I've seen. Stupid shit like that is the reason I had 6 Surefire flashlights in my locker that were collecting dust.

 

But with deficit spending, they sort of ARE producing something. That's what has me tied up - a TRILLION dollars that is paid out in the way of salaries, payments to contractors, purchases for goods and services, etc, etc, etc, that simply wouldn't exist if they had a tight, balanced budget. No other entity has the ability to borrow that much money and dump it into the economy without factoring in the eventual payback and interest.

 

Yeah, the government doesn't produce anything. Have fun driving to work on non-existent road and bridges.

Granted we might be able to get to a place where all roads are private toll roads, but that could be quite a mess.

 

Semantics...government collects money from we the peeps to pay someone else to produce the roads. They really don't produce anything other than red tape.

 

Roads and bridges are built using tax dollars paid to private companies, most often over priced and over budget. So what item in all of that is the government producing? If I spend your money on motorcycle parts am I now a producer of motorcycle parts?

 

We've covered that. The big question is the deficit spending. In spending money that doesn't exist, that will realistically never get paid back, they are doing what businesses do when they create wealth via new innovations, IPO's, speculation, etc. So in a sense, they ARE producing something. In fact, a whole fucking lot of something - almost a Trillion dollars worth every year at the current rate, and roughly 21 Trillion total.

 

That's not production.

They spend that much because we the people have allowed them to be able to. Does the government need the F-35? Yes. Does it need 300 10mm sockets to service that F-35....wait...bad example.

 

I know it's not technically production, but it has a very similar effect on the economy. To the point that I'm honestly not sure, outside of my core financial principles of spending less than you earn, that it's really a bad thing.

 

I forget which Tom Clancey book addressed the potential collapse of our economic system, but it contained an idea that I think has merit. Our system, including deficit spending and other things that are not logical, works because we the peeps believe it works. It's a house of cards that could collapse if the faith in that system is lost.

 

That's the basis of FIAT currency. It's all propagated on faith in the government. The moment the people lose faith in the government's staying power, it's currency is worthless.

 

LMAO. 10mm sockets should be a personal issue item. “You get 5, after that you buy your own.”

 

Really hard for me to say the government produces nothing as I sit on my porch drinking coffee watching my neighbors head to Peterson AFB and Fort Carson for work.

Those folks certainly produce a secure environment.

Otherwise, F government.

 

Yes its bad, China now own 1.6T US treasury bonds, they could dump them and put US in a world of hurt.

 

The economy cannot sustain itself if the sole purpose of that economy is to produce for the government.

It's not so much the spending of physical goods I take issue with, it's the wasted money in grants, research, domestic aide, foreign aide etc that I take issue with. Wasted money on pet projects, bridges and trains to no where, overspending are much more a tax burden on the American people than a single F-35. The mentality of "We collected 3.4 trillion in taxes last year, whats a couple of billion in pet projects" needs to stop. I could retire 50 times over with the amount of government waste and fraud.

Something actually in the scope of what government spending should be.

I always found it odd that I was paying myself while I was in the Army. Why the hell were taxes taken out? I felt like I was getting ripped off.

 

But that money doesn't just "stop" with that research, pet projects, etc (well, it does with foreign aid - that shit is just stupid). Every dollar paid to a researcher, contractor, supplier, and so on goes to pay for goods and services needed by that entity to do whatever work they're doing. They pay employees which use that money in the various local economies, and they also pay taxes on those earnings. So assuming all of that is done with deficit spending, what would happen if that stopped?

 

A thing I seldom see in the discussion of government spending is freedom. Pretty much every dollar spent is a loss of freedom. Granted some enhances life but much does not. So the government takes our money to tell us what to do and buy more votes.

As to stopping the mass of it that is destructive, doing so over night would be chaos. However if they came in and totally nuked a department once a year I would be all for it. Start with the Department of Education.

 

Academic welfare.

 

Give them a few of these, problem solved /s
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlik...inted-two-trillion-dollar-coins/#1de4192f6994