therefore I used China as an example of where we're getting the money to pay for the refunds (using money we don't have).

I love our way of getting lots of cheap stuff from overseas, don't get me wrong.. most of my toys are made anywhere other than here.

When China stops taking dollars for all of the crap we buy from them... then we're in trouble.

When we buy stuff from china, we pay them in dollars. They want dollars. What are they going to do with those dollars?

1. spend them (on what? stuff made in the USA, or that people are otherwise willing to take dollars for)
2. sit on them

I mean in a way, it's a great deal for us. China gives us real stuff, we just give them worthless paper. We can print more dollars and all it does is inflate our currency.

We should eliminate all import tarrifs and other restrictions on goods from china, because as long as we've got a deal where they give us real stuff we want in exchange for our worthless fiat money, we should milk that until the cow dries up.

I'm currently reading "Capitalism and Freedom", by Milton Freidman. Great book so far.

NOT!!!!!

...

integra_gsr98;202416 wrote:
Why, if they didn't pay anything, do they deserve to get a refund?

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/18/news/economy/rebate_how_it_works/?postversion=2008011913

the reasoning behind it (flawed as it may be in some aspects) is that if you give a poor person $500 they will spend it immediately, thus spurring the economy fast, whereas a more well-to-do individual will take that money and put it into savings, helping no one but their bank. The obvious flaw is that if you give me $500 and I do put it away, I will put it into the stock market via Roth IRA/Stock Options/Etc... which will also help boost the economy.

From some reports I've seen, this is about how the last round of rebates went:

1/3 spent the money right away on needed(?) things
1/3 spent the money within 6 months of getting it
1/3 still haven't spent the money, but instead put it into some sort of savings.

It'll be great, we borrow $800 from China per person to be refunded, each person takes the money.. goes to walmart.. buys a bunch of foreign-made products.. strengthening our economy HOW?

This whole band-aid makes no sense to me.

People should be able to understand this one.. inflation's been around forever.
It's why our currency was based on gold and silver. we fucked that up..

how inflation works

integra_gsr98;202416 wrote:
Why, if they didn't pay anything, do they deserve to get a refund?

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/18/news/economy/rebate_how_it_works/?postversion=2008011913

That's funny, I quoted the same thing on another forum a couple days ago