46 replies to this topic

[Random]

Nothing is going to happen.
Nothing is going to change.

[Jesi]

If taxes increase or more money is spent in useless places, it makes it Bad for Canada as well, Because we depend on the US for a lot of things

I know many friends who have visited Sydney and can vouch for Australian girls to be the hottest.

the reason for that is because Most of the Canadian Girls go to Australia! We give your country a great rep!

Edited by Jesi, 07 April 2011 - 02:08 PM.

[iceberg2477]

When this happens... who's moving to Canada? Show of hands, please.

off to Canada I go... i've got family there

[Jesi]

off to Canada I go... i've got family there

Beat you too it, I live here!
But like I said,
If the US goes down, Canada won't be far behind!
But No one is going down anytime soon! Ill be dead before this happens.

[1337hunt3r]

Nothing is going to happen.
Nothing is going to change.

^This.
The U.S. population is too fucking ignorant.

[redlion]

china could say pay your debts and then own us end of story

Nope. The US economy is four times the size of China's. All that scare about China was because of how intensely they focused their macroeconomic policy on the US dollar.

China is the reason the US wont go bankrupt. If we go bankrupt we are their biggest trading partner, it would ruin their economy too.

Correct! China has invested trillions of dollars in US Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, and US currency. They would never let the dollar totally depreciate. They might keep it undervalued to gain a favorable trading position, but that's an entirely different situation altogether.

Do note that I'm not saying the USD can't crash, I'm looking at macro-economics here, not micro. China could easily trigger a USD crash if they chooses to appreciate their yuan instead of keeping it low (if not dropping it lower). However, the USD crashing would mean too much to too many countries around the world. Almost everyone would suffer heavily if the USD crashes and hence, no one would want that to happen.

That is also a reason why it is possible for the US to incur a debt of 2 trillion.

If there were a run on the dollar, sovereign wealth funds would just buy dollars. No country is stupid enough to think they can compete on the international financial level without the Americans.

A few figures, taken from George Friedman's book The Next 100 Years:

"Americans constitute about 4% of the world's population but produce about 26% of all goods and services. In 2007 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was about $14 trillion, compared to the world's GDP of $54 trillion - about 26% of the world's economic activity takes place in the United States. The next largest economy in the world is Japan's, with a GDP of about $4.4 trillion - about a third the size of ours. The American economy is so huge that it is larger than the economies of the next four countries combined: Japan, Germany, China and the United Kingdom. "

Never underestimate American Capitalism.

[aneoguy]

I highly doubt USA will go bank rupt. They are too big of a nation. Mind you it happened before in the 1930s

[1337hunt3r]

I highly doubt USA will go bank rupt. They are too big of a nation. Mind you it happened before in the 1930s

Just like it was impossible for Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt, right?

[Frank274]

Regardless, I think it's fucking stupid that they [politicians] are cutting funding to our military. Thanks a lot, you douche bag fuck faces, now I can't pay my rent.

[Kat]

Nothing is going to happen.
Nothing is going to change.

THANK YOU!

Ugh.. the politics of fear..

Regardless, I think it's fucking stupid that they [politicians] are cutting funding to our military. Thanks a lot, you douche bag fuck faces, now I can't pay my rent.

I think they SHOULD cut military spending, but not benefits for those such as yourself..
I mean like ..let's stop buying so many F16's and stuff like that and actually take care of our citizens.. not the weathly few.
Seems like common sense you would think? The people of your country over big business interests... but that's just how stupid we are. We continually elect these bastards and hope things will get better and then get pissed when they don't.. but at the same time, it's all bullshit, because only the wealthy and powerful seem to run. It's a big fucking catch 22.

[Danielle88]

PS, this is the reason I am not and refuse to ever be a citizen of the USA. I would rather shoot myself in between the eyes than live in your country. No offense, and all that.

[redlion]

Just like it was impossible for Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt, right?

Yeah, about that. Countries and companies are different things. Corporations go bankrupt under bad management all the time. I don't like corporate structure for that reason. Too much pressure on management to out perform. American workplaces are shit compared to european counterparts. Sure, the pay might be great, but 80 hour weeks? 100 hour weeks? Training positions get shit pay and shit hours.Yeah, there's no benefits, you have to make the TEAM, youknowhatimsayin?
Perform or piss off. How much did you rake? NOT ENOUGH. I EXPECT FOURTEEN THOUSAND BY SUNDAY. And if you keep clothes in the office, makes sure they're CLEAN clothes. The last batch brought in some venomous insects and head lice n' shit. . . I was, uhh, unaffected but one trainee got a NASTY rash. Poor girl moved back to Michigan.

Corporate structure only leaves management with a livable wage. Money is money, and all people use it and need it. But health is something we should all hold inviolate as a nation. It will provide for us all when hospital bills accrue in excess of your yearly salary. Do you have cancer? Welcome to medicare. At least you get SOMEthing for free. Fuck everyone else who wants to buy into corporate plans. US is one of the few democracies that has utterly shit public healthcare.

I think they SHOULD cut military spending, but not benefits for those such as yourself..
I mean like ..let's stop buying so many F16's and stuff like that and actually take care of our citizens.. not the weathly few.
Seems like common sense you would think? The people of your country over big business interests... but that's just how stupid we are. We continually elect these bastards and hope things will get better and then get pissed when they don't.. but at the same time, it's all bullshit, because only the wealthy and powerful seem to run. It's a big fucking catch 22.

Common sense is hard when half a senator's salary is from lobbyists. Why do you think we have so many religious republicans and greeny democrats? It's because GE is going green, and the right believes in holy war for aerospace and high tech warfare, so everyone's money is safe. The government is very much bought.

PS, this is the reason I am not and refuse to ever be a citizen of the USA. I would rather shoot myself in between the eyes than live in your country. No offense, and all that.

Where are you from? Always interesting to get the perspective of a 'foreigner'. I'm not really that murrican to begin with, but I guess even the most worldly of us fit some stereotypes.

[samcoconut]

At what point do we officially go bankrupt? I would say the point is not when we declare bankruptcy, but when we have less money than we owe (hence, the bank is ruptured). This happened a LOOOOOONG time ago.

[ToxicS]

Crisis averted. No government shutdown. "hurray"

[Georgina]

If the US goes backrupt then the world is going to be more stuffed then it is now. And it could mean a lot of change to this world, even war.

lets hope not.

How would war derive from a bankruptcy?

The only reason war would start out is the minute possibility that if an enemy of America wanted to start a war, during a Bankruptcy would be its ideal time as a war costs billions. But even then there's many other countries who would step in.

I highly doubt the US will go bankrupt anyway.

[Kat]

Lol, me and my friends were talking about this today. One of them was like, "Why don't we just print more money?.." But one of my other friends is all about Zeitgeist and then the shitstorm started. Good times.

Crisis averted, of course...


Now onto the issue of funding for Planned Parenthood. Oh lawdy..

[samcoconut]

I would just like to mention that what they did was move the deadline to April 16. There still might be a shutdown.

[Gen]

I don't doubt about this. I still remember when 1 dolar was 3 reais... Now 1 dolar is 1.6-1.8 reais, going down...
The funniest thing is, around five years ago we would be afraid of USA going bankrupt, now this doesn't even freak people out... (at least not that I've known about)

[pyke]

Where are you from? Always interesting to get the perspective of a 'foreigner'. I'm not really that murrican to begin with, but I guess even the most worldly of us fit some stereotypes.

I gotta say... American politics is pretty messed up, from a Canadian perspective.

[redlion]

I gotta say... American politics is pretty messed up, from a Canadian perspective.

Well, it's what we get for being first. Seriously, first democracy that didn't have aristocracy in it - fucking win.

So what if the founding fathers thought everyone was stupid and needed to be told how to vote, they still created the first modern democracy. No house of lords for us, no, just elder statesmen and slightly less elder statesmen. Makes for a plutocracy, but whatever.