:rotfl2:

Best plan I've heard in a long while. Or the other way around: The USA could declare war on the USA and lose. Then the USA would do the above, but in a friendlier manner.

USA out of North America! :rock:

Old Iroquois slogan. :D

The biggest ponzi scheme of all time.

You want a good laugh and kind of see where BO is coming from....

google TIF Chicago

or

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago...nt?oid=1180567

:doh:

solution to the problem:

http://www.theonion.com/video/us-gov...nationa,14356/

and btw: the national anthem played at the end is the Norwegian :)

I imagine that the premiums are pretty high.

I am not suprised by this at all.

However, on the economic issue - it misses 2 very important, and critical - points.

The first - it doesn't matter how MUCH debt you have - what matters is whether you are reducing or growing that debt. We have - for many years - been growing that debt. If you spend more than you take in - the rest is irrelevant - because one way or the other - sooner or later - the house of cards comes crashing down.

Secondly - did anyone catch the bit about how debt is currently financed? Debt is owed by the government - which obligates the people. However - much of the debt is owed TO the government (trust funds programs). So in essence the government has obligated us to pay ourselves......

Anyone see the flaw in the logic on THAT ONE?

They used good and services combined, and talk in dollars when talking about chinese crap. Obviously, nearly 100% of services are not chinese (unless, say, the housekeepers fly in from china, mop my floors, then fly back (and all talk among themselves in spanish just to fool us).

I think in terms of goods, you cannot look at dollars. Look at what is used to show our trade balance with china, etc. Airliners, etc, always help. So we get 100 million t-shirts and they get one 767. I think the idea that many, if not most consumer goods (NOT services) are imported is not far-fetched in terms of units, not dollars.

But the manufacture of 767's means a hell of a lot more to an economy. A t-shirt may require one person to work the sewing machine that makes the shirt and another to work the screen print press that puts the silly cartoon character on it. Both are menial low skill, low wage positions that can turn out thousands of shirts a day/week/whatever.

Think of the thousands of highly skilled, highly paid workers (read: jobs) that are involved in the manufacture of a 767. Think of the intricate and complicated process it is to manufacture just one jet.

There's more value to an economy in high skill and technical jobs rather than basic manufacturing. The number of units is irrelevant.

I'll just add to what you said, plus all of the supporting jobs and indirect jobs that are dependent on industry X.

I think we'd prove quite troublesome anyways. :hmmm:

The point was that I personally think most "stuff" I see for sale is made in China. It seems to be true. Walk through a retailer and check.

The idea that "everything is made in china" is not at all silly. The FACT that it comprises a fairly small dollar value % wise is being intentionally misleading. Why, for example, did they lump "goods and services?" It the case of crap from china it is all GOODS. Since over 75% of the US economy is "services," they are being intentionally misleading, IMHO.

I don't mind the straight facts, and I have no particular axe to grind (I'm not one who hates that we get stuff from china, I don;t hate walmart (even if i never shop there, etc), but always look at what they are actually comparing.

They say PRC crap is 2.7% of the economy, but since ~75% is service, and 22% is apparently US manufacturing, that 2.7% is a large % of that little bit that is left, is it not?

Well, if we look at it this way, American goods account for 1.7% of china's economy

https://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i...F+gdp+of+china

I personally think in this age of Globalization its really not that much

total US imports are $1.948 trillion USD per year, while imports from China are $364.9 Billion USD a year
I don't think its that bad, considering that China accounts for 20.9% of the non US population on earth (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i...+population%29)

Excellent point. If we are looking at numbers might as well go all in.

Because the statement being disproved was "Most of what Americans spend their money on is made in China." Americans spend money on services, hence, they count services in with goods.

I've never heard anyone say that, have you? People say most of what they BUY is from china.

Seriously, have you heard anyone say anything that could possibly be taken as "most of the services I spend money on come from china!"

No, that's because they took what people actually say, that most of the STUFF they buy is from china, and they twist it to something virtually no one ever says in conversation (and hating on china, and how much chinese crap there is comes up in conversation all the time).

It's disingenuous, period, since services are self-evidently NOT from china.