Good point Lookout. Too bad too many of the politicians have been bought.

Since America is the biggest consumer base in the world, we buy more crap than anywhere, we should simply charge the crap out of companies who want to import stuff back into this country to sell. They would be injuring themselves in the longrun. They have too much power. Corporations were never meant to have so much power. It's a shame, really.

Huh? Could you explain that a little bit more please?

Companies that are essentially American companies, who decide to outsource all their labor (instead of supporting THIS country, the country where they were able to succeed, by supplying jobs here) or move their offices to another country to get out of paying taxes should pay high tarrifs or other fees that would basically allow us to recoup tax money from them. Do you realize that more than 50% of corporations in this country pay NO taxes? ZERO. Why should corporations based in this country get away with that? Why do they hate their own country?

Why do you hate America so much?

Even as a joke, that question in its various forms is starting to make me gag.

sorry. :(

Bring on the Socialist States of Amerikia! Hail to the Second Comming of Christ. President Obama!

Good grief! Why do you assume I hate America, when I just want things to go back to the way they were when we were strongest as a country? All the new rules with regard to the way corporations work and are run, those are relatively new. 20-30 years ago, CEOs and executives were not paid the obscene amounts of money they make today, the workforce was better paid and taken care of, there were regulations in place that did not allow companies to get away with the corruption and greed they get away with today, we had a very strong middle class, we still MADE THINGS in this country, and the upper 2% paid more taxes, so did corporations. The dissolution of all those things has made us much weaker as country, so why would you think I hate America, when I only want the things that us strong as a country?

The people who don't want those things, the people who want even weaker regulations, and less government control, and more corporate power, those are the people who hate America. Those are the things have made us weaker and allowed corruption to thrive, and nearly brought the entire world economy.

Although I am a socialist and would prefer that form of government, I am not talking about socialism. I am talking about capitalism that isn't broken. And really, I think you should look up what socialism is Merc, because the way you (and many others) use it is not really what it is.

And this kind of shit really adds to everyone's understanding of the issues. :greenface

You mean 20 years ago at the end of the Reagan era, or 30 years ago at the end of the Carter era?

You have to define 'strong'. In many ways, our entire financial structure during Reagan and continuing during Clinton was reworked so that money had less and less to do with actual productivity. In some ways it was a giant Ponzi scheme or some kind of raffle where money was producing more money without actually creating anything.

It got worse when Glass-Steagall Act was watered down by both Reagan and Clinton (with a Republican Congress). Suddenly, BANK was no longer a 4 letter word meaning community investment, reserve requirements, and a conservative approach.

IMO, except for the lending freeze, we are where we should be, focused on real world valuations and a world where debt is called or at least treated as debt, not 'leverage'.

Consistent and indefinite %20 growth is not normal for anything except cancer. We may be returning to a world where getting back %5-10 on an investment is considered good and rating agencies don't have their heads up their asses.

I thought since we are making unrealistic assessments and generalizations about the turn of events in the last 6 months I would just get in my :2cents: .