You Can't Run Government Like Your Stupid Houshold!

[DemocracyInaction]

The ignorant American public equates the massive US economy with their personal, pathetic checkbook. They reason that if the family can't afford to go out for pizza anymore on Saturday night then the government should tighten it's belt, too, and stop spending money on things like education or fire all public employees, etc. That would be like the family solving their "Saturday-night pizza" problem by no longer paying their healthcare premiums and their mortgage!!! They might gorge their slobbering faces with pizza for awhile; but in the end they will have no home, no money (after the first family illness) and NO FUCKING PIZZA!! These Tea Party-Right Wing assholes are going to cut everything including their own noses off!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Seeing the look on their faces when they begin to suffer is the only thing I can say I will enjoy about this attack on our country).

[leftstreet]

1. You can post this without calling Americans 'ignorant'

Most working class people have much more experience in budgeting than our ruling class overlords

[LostHighway]

8. But....it's not the same.

That's the point. And folks who think that, whether working class or not, are in fact ignorant if they think they are. The fact that a person is good at budgeting doesn't excuse them from being held to common sense standards that say that an American household doesn't work the same as the U.S. government. If they do, maybe they're not really that smart on budgeting after all...

[leftstreet]

11. Where have Americans made this claim?

I guess I missed something.

It looks like they're being pre-emptively labeled ignorant on the assumption the talking points will work on them. And if the austerity/budget bullshit is packaged and sold the same way Iraq war propaganda was, it probably will. But that's not due to ignorance. That's due to controlled lack of information.

[jmowreader]

17. Every teabagger in America makes this claim

They really believe the government can run EXACTLY like their household.

"I pay my bills, so the government should do exactly the same. There should never be a deficit."

There are four things wrong with this theory.

1) The government actually DOES pay its bills. If it didn't, no one would ever lend money to it by purchasing government debt securities. A teabagger who stops paying his credit card bills is quickly going to learn no one will loan him money either.

2) The government creates money by loaning it out. When it comes back with interest, the nation has more money than it started out with.

3) If it weren't for government spending this nation would be in a world of hurt. Government spending CREATES jobs!

And 4) Almost all Americans participate in deficit spending. Anyone who has a car loan, mortgage, boat loan, credit card, account with the electric company, telephone, or ANY OTHER FORM OF CREDIT, is a deficit spender.

[leftstreet]

19. And...what are the Democrats doing to counter these talking points?

:shrug:

[Cleita]

9. Budgeting doesn't work in running a nation.

You are ignorant if you believe this and extremely naive. We do need to increase taxes on multi-national corporations doing business here and the super-wealthy who are getting a free ride on the backs of the working class.

[leftstreet]

12. Nor do lies

If Americans aren't given the facts, how can we measure their 'nation budgeting' abilities?

[Cleita]

15. Hey I was told yesterday by my Republican Assemblyman

that cutting down jobs by eliminating coffee breaks created jobs. :eyes: It's not hard to figure out the lies if you have half a brain.

[FSogol]

2. Exactly if you need to save $100 a month, you can cut cable tv and Starbucks but, if

you need to save $14 trillion, cutting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting isn't going to work.

Running the government like a household or business is idiotic. Anything who thinks these problems are easy is a simpleton.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. For generations, Americans have been taught that the national budget...

is like the family budget, and if we just run government like a bussiness everything will be peachy.

The real difference between the family budget and the national budget is like the difference between Newtonian physicis and Quantum physics. That doesn't make them ignorant, but it does make them easy prey for politicians who hyper simplify everything to get power.

[hughee99]

4. Exactly, the american people are all ignorant fuckwits who should

pay their taxes and pay no attention to where it goes. That's the recipe for a free country right there. Governments are efficient organizations that only spend money on the most necessary of things... :sarcasm:

Everybody, EVERY SINGLE PERSON, thinks there are things the government shouldn't be spending money on, so everyone has an example of where the government is wasting their money. No, it's not as simple as a household budget, but that doesn't mean people can't see instances where their money is being pissed away. The problem is that when it comes time for budget cuts, those expenditures with the least influence behind them, not necessarily those that are the least necessary, are the ones that get cut.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. Doesn't help when our own President is using that analogy.

Like I said in another thread, such facile nonsense may play well in Peoria but it is, as you say, contributing to the abysmal ignorance of basic economics that exists in the public.

[Abq_Sarah]

6. The idea that government can spend money

Without any fucking regard to where that money is going to come from is equally stupid.

For most people, the idea that you can spend whatever the hell you want and pass the bill to your children once they become adults is repugnant.

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. Here's An Idea, If We Can't Spend Money On Pizza

Then this country can't spend money on pointless wars.

[Nevernose]

10. Or maybe that metaphor could be useful.

If, say, it were applied to military spending, it would be like you spent more than a third of your income on guns and survival gear -- more cash than any every single neighbor in your community combined -- plus you occasionally decided that the cops sucked, so you sometimes conduct home invasions of people with family members that have pissed you off.

You don't invest shit for the future (can't afford all of that technology spending), and instead of driving a newer car or taking the subway, you keep driving the same old beater that breaks down every few months, costing more in the long run.

Your grandparents are taken care of, for the most part, but they still have to live with you. Your brother and his wife keep trying to convince them to spend all of their retirement daytrading, which, according to your brother, is perfectly safe, even though you just had to mortage your underwater house to keep him out of bankruptcy/jail. Also, your kids are were uninsured until very recently; naturally your brother thinks their insurance rates are too high and the family would be better off investing in his daytrading operation.

Not a perfect metaphor, granted, but it could be a useful one.

[Waiting For Everyman]

13. It can't be run like a business either.

I'm real tired of that one. "Public" is not the same as "private" - it's the opposite.

[backwoodsbob]

14. ignore for the stupid

you are the second person ever on my ignore list and the first for plain being stupid

[pintobean]

16. That's a good idea. I'll join you.

My 2nd also.

[minavasht]

18. Nope, you can't

You got it right, government is so much easier - all you have to do is print a bunch of pictures of dead presidents.
In a family you have to actually balance your budget.
You know, spend only money you have, etc.

[WatsonT]

20. At all times we should look for ways

to cut wasteful spending that can't be justified.

A budget crises is an even better time to do so than normal.

/doesn't mean we should slash useful programs but certainly no one would argue that the federal government functions at 100% efficiency

[Peregrine Took]

21. You hear this all the time on moronic talk radio shows. n/t