| Author |
Message |
    
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 - 10:45 pm: | 
|
Bill,
I'm at a loss as to your point. You seem to be frightened by big numbers. So the government spends more on interest per year than education. So do most families. What's your point? The big scary numbers keep you from sleeping at night. Try working them into fractions of GDP, you'll feel better.
One of our approaches to understanding the issue is logical, one is emotional.
Big numbers don't scare me. They are just numbers. When you put them into perspective, the scariness goes away. I'm working on sizing up some satcom antennas that have to maintain boresight on target while tracking a moving spacecraft to within 0.015o all while subject to wind load induced torque of 100,000 FT*LB.
The motor used to drive and point/track against that 100,000 FT*LB torque? A whopping 10 HP electric motor.
You ought to see the gearbox. |
Court
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 - 11:04 pm: |
|
>>>$227 billion (in interest).
Guess where it goes? |
Court
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 - 11:07 pm: |
|
By the way . . . . since WWII there has been no greater "redistributor of wealth" than the Federal Government.
The GSA was created to centralize procurement and one of the things they do (ever wonder why the Coast Guard has facilities in West Virginia?) is to "move" Federal monies to places to do good, provide jobs and support local economies.
If you want to see a current example watch how the placement new Border Stations plays out.
P.S. - watch for a major scandal related to them to occur in about 2 years as well . . . . . but you didn't hear it from me.
 |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 - 11:14 pm: |
|
10 HP and 100,000 Ft Lbs of torque? Careful... people might get the right idea about the relevance of each.
Bet that is one *hell* of a gearbox! |
Court
| | Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 06:04 am: |
|
Space needle in Seattle was rotated by a 1/4 HP motor . . . |
Gohot
| | Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 06:35 am: |
|
Buell in "SPACE" .....it could happen, ....no really...... |
Slaughter
| | Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 07:29 am: |
|
Josep Stalin on statistics:
quote:A single death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.
|
Bill0351
| | Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 11:26 am: |
|
Blake,
Interest payments as percentage of GDP in an arcane and largely meaningless statistic. Interest payments as percentage of our budget is where we feel it.
The point of my original post is that we are starting to spend what is approaching 10% of our budget on interest payments. That completely ignores the fact that there is also a debt to pay back.
That interest that is consuming roughly 8.5% of our budget doesn't buy anything. It doesn't pave roads or build schools. It doesn't take care of veterans or develop clean energy. It goes down the toilet.
2006 budget deficit? Approximately 230 billion
2006 interest on national debt? Approximately 250 billion
To me the correlation is clear.
Taking out loan to pay interest?
If you want to go back to your idea that you can meaningfully compare family debt to our national situation, that would be like using a cash advance to make your credit card payment.
It baffles me that a conservative would be arguing for the irrelevance of irresponsible government spending and a ballooning national debt.
I am as socially liberal as you could want to find anywhere. I’m proud of that fact. Stay out of my private life and I will stay out of yours.
I am also as fiscally conservative as you could find anywhere, both in my personal life and in my politics.
If we don’t have the money we shouldn’t be spending it. Debt is poison and it should only be taken on in extreme emergencies. Then it should be paid back aggressively until it’s gone.
The engineering analogy is interesting, but completely irrelevant. One thing is not the other and they don’t follow the same rules.
Bill |
Blake
| | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 10:46 am: |
|
I'm not arguing for irresponsible spending, just that alarmism about our debt or the interest payments required to service it are, well alarmist. I'm all for reducing our debt and stopping the irresponsible spending. I'd start with entitlements; they comprise half of our national budget.
I'd much rather see reduced entitlements than higher taxes.
I disagree that we don't get anything for our interest payments. We get cash. Ask most any businessman, you need cash to grow, weather a business or an economy. We're enduring a downturn. It hopefully won't last as long as the upturn.
The price of gasoline is dropping like a lead weight, $2.03 last night on the way home. It drops about five cents every day it seems like. We could be looking at $1.50/gal in the near future.
The previously stratospheric price of oil has reinvigorated the domestic oil/energy industry. I hope the price of oil stays up around $70/bbl so that it stays that way.
Darn President Bush. |
1313
| | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 08:55 pm: |
|
Is it just me or is there some resemblance here?
Now I don't mean to start any conspiracy theories about puppet VP's here...
This is about as political as I get - so Njoy!
1313 |
Spatten1
| | Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008 - 09:41 pm: |
|
We need to start worrying about how much debt we have when we have to keep increasing interest rates to get the Chinese and Germans to buy more. Until recently, US debt was being downgraded internationally, which was driving our currency down, which means higher interest payments and inflation (and hopefully fuel for our manufacturing sector).
All bets are off now, I'm curious to see how it shakes out in the next couple of months. The other economies are a wreck too, so our relative currency value and credit risk may improve significantly. |
|
