[Blue Lion]

First labor unions, then child labor laws! They do it in southeast asia, why not us? Plus we bring back slaves.

Was that over the top?

[Roanoke]

Wonder how much an F-15 would make on ebay ? One not so careful owner, no (federal) reserve!

[Goober5000]

F.)Having a form of money not backed by gold seems incredibly risky, although it may not be possible, backing the Dollar with something more stable than people's confidence in it seems like a much better idea.

You abandoned the dollar/gold system for a reason. It wasn't worth **** compared to other nations' systems.

Every monetary system has problems but having your currency backed by nothing is really stupid.  When the dollar was tied to gold, you could always say that X number of dollars bought Y amount of gold - it had tangible value.  Nowadays the dollar's worth is determined pretty much "because we say so".  So when our bluff gets called, the economy will have a cascade failure.

[Blue Lion]

Seems no one actually paid attention to why we came off the gold standard. If anything it gave it more stability.

[Goober5000]

Seems no one actually paid attention to why we came off the gold standard. If anything it gave it more stability.

We came off the gold standard because it was inconvenient - it made it harder for the government to spend money it didn't have.

[achtung]

I'm converting my savings to Euros......

What I think should be done is:

A.) Abbolish many Labor Unions, people don't deserve $15-$20 an hour to stick a piece of metal on a car.  This would lower the price of American goods and hopefully increase Exports

So you expect a man to feed his family for less, without mentioning any associated change in the actual price of goods. Think about that.

B.)Raise Tarrifs on Chinese Imports and Lower Tarriffs on South American ones.  It's Cheaper to get something from Mexico to the U.S. than from China to the U.S.  This would stimulate Retailers to acquire goods from American factories, and South America could act as a temporary fall back if something should go wrong.

It's been proven time and again that protectionism is ultimately self defeating.

C.)Raise the requirements for Welfare Programs.  Welfare is a major drain on the government, and of people are simply taking advantage of the programs.

Ah so now we blame the poor. Your financial prowess stuns me.

D.)Increase assistance to small businesses.  Allowing a small business to grow in the U.S. could increase exports and benefit everyone.

This you are correct about.

E.)Let the illegal Immigrants stay, they make good, cheap labor.

Until they stay long enough to become second or third generation families who inevitably start to enter the same high-paid professions and their native counterparts.

F.)Having a form of money not backed by gold seems incredibly risky, although it may not be possible, backing the Dollar with something more stable than people's confidence in it seems like a much better idea.

You abandoned the dollar/gold system for a reason. It wasn't worth **** compared to other nations' systems.

G.)Require everyone to go through High School as people are required to go through Grade School.  Educated people are always useful, well, almost always.

You're not already? Alright suddenly things are starting to make sense...

H.)Raise taxes on Credit Cards, they only cause problems.  Buying stuff on Credit is one thing that caused the Great Depression it should be obvious it's risky and should be controlled.  Of course it was buying on Margin that was the main factor that caused the Great Depression, but people using Credit knowing they couldn't pay was also a major factor.

Yes but generally speaking today most people CAN pay off their debts in the long term; Or they have assets that can do it.

I know some of the ideas would probably be near impossible, but they're ideas none the less.  I'm sure there are things I've not thought of, anyone got some ideas?

Why do you want to flame me?  I just wrote down some stuff that came to mind.  At least I'm thinking about it unlike most of the populace.

[Blue Lion]

We came off the gold standard because it was inconvenient - it made it harder for the government to spend money it didn't have.

It was inconvenient for two reasons. 1. US businessmen used their influence to control the gold supply, and then control the value of the dollar and the policy of the US government. 2. After WW2 the Dollar became the basis for the world economy with the Bretton Woods Agreement.

'Under the post-World War II Bretton Woods Agreement, all other currencies were valued in terms of United States dollars, and were thus indirectly linked to the gold standard. The need for the US government to maintain both a $35 per ounce market price of gold and also the conversion to foreign currencies caused economic and trade pressures. By the early 1960s, compensation for these pressures started to become too complicated to manage.'

In other words, gold was becoming more of a problem than it was worth.

[ionia23]

So, big economic crash, hmm?

Nah.  Just a repeat of 1929.  The many end up with nothing, the few end up with everything.  Same thing every day.

[Unknown Target]

I'm converting my savings to Euros......

What I think should be done is:

A.) Abbolish many Labor Unions, people don't deserve $15-$20 an hour to stick a piece of metal on a car. This would lower the price of American goods and hopefully increase Exports

So you expect a man to feed his family for less, without mentioning any associated change in the actual price of goods. Think about that.

B.)Raise Tarrifs on Chinese Imports and Lower Tarriffs on South American ones. It's Cheaper to get something from Mexico to the U.S. than from China to the U.S. This would stimulate Retailers to acquire goods from American factories, and South America could act as a temporary fall back if something should go wrong.

It's been proven time and again that protectionism is ultimately self defeating.

C.)Raise the requirements for Welfare Programs. Welfare is a major drain on the government, and of people are simply taking advantage of the programs.

Ah so now we blame the poor. Your financial prowess stuns me.

D.)Increase assistance to small businesses. Allowing a small business to grow in the U.S. could increase exports and benefit everyone.

This you are correct about.

E.)Let the illegal Immigrants stay, they make good, cheap labor.

Until they stay long enough to become second or third generation families who inevitably start to enter the same high-paid professions and their native counterparts.

F.)Having a form of money not backed by gold seems incredibly risky, although it may not be possible, backing the Dollar with something more stable than people's confidence in it seems like a much better idea.

You abandoned the dollar/gold system for a reason. It wasn't worth **** compared to other nations' systems.

G.)Require everyone to go through High School as people are required to go through Grade School. Educated people are always useful, well, almost always.

You're not already? Alright suddenly things are starting to make sense...

H.)Raise taxes on Credit Cards, they only cause problems. Buying stuff on Credit is one thing that caused the Great Depression it should be obvious it's risky and should be controlled. Of course it was buying on Margin that was the main factor that caused the Great Depression, but people using Credit knowing they couldn't pay was also a major factor.

Yes but generally speaking today most people CAN pay off their debts in the long term; Or they have assets that can do it.

I know some of the ideas would probably be near impossible, but they're ideas none the less. I'm sure there are things I've not thought of, anyone got some ideas?

Why do you want to flame me? I just wrote down some stuff that came to mind. At least I'm thinking about it unlike most of the populace.

I can think about things and be dumb at the same time. It's not that amazing as a skill

[achtung]

I'm just going to quit before I make myself look even more idiotic.

[aldo_14]

I'm just going to quit before I make myself look even more idiotic.

You know, you're just opening yourself up to all kinds of comments with that.

Lucky for you I'm in a peaceful mood

[Blue Lion]

I'm just going to quit before I make myself look even more idiotic.

Pffft, that's how you get noticed.

[Turnsky]

well there goes the world economy. either way this goes, it'll have a domino effect.

The only reason the dollar hasn't crashed yet is because there just isn't a totally developed alternative. Meaning that when it finally does crash, it will crash even harder.

The domino effect will be hardest for those countries that are overly dependant on America for exports; namely Japan, South Korea, and China. At least China is starting to move towards a more balanced approach to currency management (the "basket" that is uses now), but Japan and South Korea are not.

that's true, and australia wouldn't be so hardest effected, as a lot of our import/export market comes from the asia-pacific region, rather than the americas, it would still hurt us, though, but not to the extent some countries will get, fortunately america's not the economic backbone it was way back when, still, if it falters, a lot of countries are gonna feel it one way or another. maybe the economic situation over there will get so bad, that americans will start jumping the mexican border to find work 
Either way you look at it, this is a sheer farce of economic management on bush administration's part. really, this shouldn't have happened, wasn't there a budget surplus by the time clinton left office?

[Descenterace]

Expect to see lots more US Military stuff in the hands of Korea, Iraq, etc in ten years' time...

[Turnsky]

Expect to see lots more US Military stuff in the hands of Korea, Iraq, etc in ten years' time...

and we don't already? 

[Kosh]

A.) Abbolish many Labor Unions, people don't deserve $15-$20 an hour to stick a piece of metal on a car.  This would lower the price of American goods and hopefully increase Exports

Heaven forbid should workers have rights. Despite what Rush Limbaugh tells you, not everything is their fault. GM is a good example of this.

And why is it that Germany is a strong exporter when it has even stronger unions, higher living standards, and the Euro is valued higher than the dollar? Because it has a lot of high quality, high performance products.

Why is America a net importer? Because other than the exports that are heavily regulated, America just doesn't have much to offer.

C.)Raise the requirements for Welfare Programs.  Welfare is a major drain on the government, and of people are simply taking advantage of the programs.

Why not just throw them out on the street? Oh wait, you did that and it solved nothing.

E.)Let the illegal Immigrants stay, they make good, cheap labor.

You really don't know what you are talking about, do you?

[Charismatic]

Ha ha ha America.
China wins!

Over my dead body. We would never allow china or russia to win.

[vyper]

Why do you want to flame me?  I just wrote down some stuff that came to mind.  At least I'm thinking about it unlike most of the populace.

Challenging your ideas isn't flaming you. Calling you a ****ing retard for blaming the poor - now that would be flaming you.

Ha ha ha America.
China wins!

Over my dead body. We would never allow china or russia to win.

How, exactly? No money = no win. I'm not saying I think China will actually "win" in the long term, but still.

[Kosh]

How, exactly?

Fuzzy math.

[vyper]

Ooh, can I stroke it?