The US is in the hole, France might soon follow, next the .......

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by Fèvier

Those are some crazy statistics!

Imagine if the all the billionaires invest half their yearly income into reducing the national debt. wonder how much that would help

It would not be too much help bro
It takes a thousand billion to equal one trillion and we owe over 14 trillion.
So essentially we would need over 14-thousand billionaires to invest and MOST billionaires only have between 1-10 Billion. Only a very few have higher; such as Bill Gates who has 56 Billion. So on average each Billonare would be giving 35-50% of their entire wealth if they were to invest 1 billion. If Bill Gates wanted to give a billion for this cause it would be 1.78% of his entire wealth. To put this in perspective, if you were a Millionaire 1.78% of your money is $17,800. That is a lot of money to spend, even for them .. not pennies! Furthermore there is only 403 people who are billionaires in the US (according to Forbes). So if all 403 Billionaires were to invest the 1 billion it would only 403 - Billion and not the 14,000 - Billion we need. That would only be 2.88% of the money we need. Now if every billionaire was to invest a clean 50% of their money it would come out to be $650,000,000,000 (that's 650 Billion) which is only 4.64% of the 14 trillion we need. It is still not practical as you can see, nor would each billionaire be willing to give 50%
My calculations are rounded but accurate ..... hope this helps

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by Future Raptor Ace

It would not be too much help bro
It takes a thousand billion to equal one trillion and we owe over 14 trillion.
So essentially we would need over 14-thousand billionaires to invest and MOST billionaires only have between 1-10 Billion. Only a very few have higher; such as Bill Gates who has 56 Billion. So on average each Billonare would be giving 35-50% of their entire wealth if they were to invest 1 billion. If Bill Gates wanted to give a billion for this cause it would be 1.78% of his entire wealth. To put this in perspective, if you were a Millionaire 1.78% of your money is $17,800. That is a lot of money to spend, even for them .. not pennies! Furthermore there is only 403 people who are billionaires in the US (according to Forbes). So if all 403 Billionaires were to invest the 1 billion it would only 403 - Billion and not the 14,000 - Billion we need. That would only be 2.88% of the money we need. Now if every billionaire was to invest a clean 50% of their money it would come out to be $650,000,000,000 (that's 650 Billion) which is only 4.64% of the 14 trillion we need. It is still not practical as you can see, nor would each billionaire be willing to give 50%
My calculations are rounded but accurate ..... hope this helps

SO. In short, there is no easy magical solution. It comes down to paying it off over time, all the while NOT increasing it. That's why simple minded ideas like having only the rich pay more is not only obsolete, but could do more harm than good in the long run.

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by wasabi622

SO. In short, there is no easy magical solution. It comes down to paying it off over time, all the while NOT increasing it. That's why simple minded ideas like having only the rich pay more is not only obsolete, but could do more harm than good in the long run.

Yea but the problem is you have to increase debt in order to start paying it off ... it is just a looping mess

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by Future Raptor Ace

Yea but the problem is you have to increase debt in order to start paying it off ... it is just a looping mess

Economics is just screwed up like that. In order to get a credit card, they want a good credit score, but to build up a good credit score, you need a credit card. WTF.

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by wasabi622

Economics is just screwed up like that. In order to get a credit card, they want a good credit score, but to build up a good credit score, you need a credit card. WTF.

It really is screwed up and that is all becuase money and the worlds economic system has no "real value" it technically only has a perceived value in which we assign to it. This perceived valued is calculated by supply and demand. If there is too much money in circulation eventually the supply will exceed the demand causing inflation which will make the money drop in value. The converse also happens when supply is less than demand. It all revolves around getting as much money as you can while keeping the persevered value as high as possible. As for credit, a company does not know if you can be trusted or not so you have to prove yourself on crappy credit cards (which almost anyone can get) building credit until you can get approved for good one. Also if you have income and co-sign on "stuff" that will also build credit, as well as taking out loans ... etc. So there is more than one way to build credit, not just owning a credit card.
As for stocks, it is all about fear; right now people have less faith in the market; if somehow you can reinstall faith the market will go up. The only thing you really have the fear is fear itself! So my point from all this economics is just a whacked out loop but ultimately boils down to supply and demand

[Fèvier]

how about we just switch to a barter system? xD

I really didn't feel like doing the research/math at the moment. Didn't think anyone would either, but good job FRA. That really put into perspective how much worse it is than I imagined. Is there a way that we can repay in services rather than actual money? The US doesn't have much American goods to trade for in comparison to many other countries and the main thing the US is dependent on are services. Just a thought.

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by Fèvier

how about we just switch to a barter system? xD

I really didn't feel like doing the research/math at the moment. Didn't think anyone would either, but good job FRA. That really put into perspective how much worse it is than I imagined. Is there a way that we can repay in services rather than actual money? The US doesn't have much American goods to trade for in comparison to many other countries and the main thing the US is dependent on are services. Just a thought.

Ill be honest with you; I wasnt expecting it to be as low as it came out to be until I crunched the numbers! In reference to your point I think the only thing that can satisfy what you are saying is natural gas. There is a huge market in natural gas, lots of people are investing in it thinking it will be the future in sustainable alternate energy. Furthermore they just found tons of it underneath the continental United States. They found so much that it is more than twice the amount of oil in Saudi Arabia! So if there is a global market for natural gas, which many people say there will be since it is cheaper as well as cleaner than oil, then it very well may be our ticket out of this mess so long as it is sustainable!~

[Tiwaz]

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