sdaniels7114

If our current debt was somewhere around 30 trillion dollars we'd have the same debt to GDP ratio we had at the end of WW1. If it was 45 trillion dollars we'd have the same debt to GDP ratio as we had at the end of WW2. Even after WW2 ended we basically gave Europe 2% of our GDP for re-building every year through 1952. Yet somehow amidst all that massive spending we didn't all die of excessive debt.

I wouldn't go so far as to say we should continue spending as we have been; but there really is no logical reason for Republicans to be in such a tizzy over the debt. Its like y'all got tired of flipping out over every terrorist threat to come along and flipping out over every single illegal alien just wasn't quite satisfying enough, so you found something new to flip out over.

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Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob everyone.

Wolfpack

I'm just saying that percentage change is an extremely misleading statistic. I didn't mean to say the data was false when I said it was "jury rigged," so I apologize if I gave that impression. I'm just saying that real numbers are more informative than "percentage change"
Congratulations on being the first person in history to win an internet argument.

Wolfpack

I think your data are inaccurate, according to the following chart, but I will grant you that the highest debt to GDP ratio we've ever had was at the end of WW2. The problem is that that was an extremely short term statistical blip followed by drastic and immediate declines ones the war was over. Fact is there is no such decline anywhere on our horizon; if anything, thanks to Obama, we can expect continued increases.



Fact also is we have never had a prolonged period at the current debt to GDP ratio we are currently experiencing. We are entering some unchartered - and very frightening - waters.

patsfan13

There is plenty of blame to go around, trying to assign blame is an exercise of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.


A group of Tea Party folks have proposed a solution I posted a thread on it, of course it will require some reading so no one will be interested.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

chicowalker

OT: Actually, having both absolute #s and percentages tends to be best -- % change reflects the context of whatever absolute data you're looking at.

Real World

Bingo. There's a distinct difference between short term debt and structural debt. Our current problem is structural.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
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