Comments on: Ross Perot Charts: How I Learned to be a Housing Blogger from Ross Perot.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:54:12 +0000

First, I have trouble believing these charts. My parents paid NOTHING AT ALL in taxes until they were in their 50’s. I’ve been paying more and more each year(percent wise), yet my living standard hasn’t increased. I look around to the people I know, and everyone are directly working for the government or a large portion of their income is from the government. I don’t belief that our GDP is increasing to compensate for this either. It seems to me that the government is discouraging people from starting businesses. More people everyday are being laid off, and no one has a job. What are we producing any more?
Second, if you belief Perot’s charts or not, our biggest threat to our economy is the medical industry, which coincidents with my long held beliefs. From my point of view, we need to get some control on that. The medical industry is full with fraud, incompetence, greed and stupidity. In 99% instances, we are definitely not getting our money out from this waste. Pharma floods the tube with ads telling us that we are sick, buy this miracle drug (and get what? - you are paying for those advertisements). One and a half MILLION people are harmed by hospitals every year. When doctors go on strike or if hospitals close, death rates go down. Yet we are trying to buy our immortality by flushing more and more to this endless sewer. Pharma and insurance are showing all time profits. Are we getting healthier? Mandating “insurance” will only cause more problems for everyone. Our only hope is to get our freedom back to choose our own health care.
Third, I don’t know if we are running out of oil, or if some big cat just wants a little more power. Some day we will run out of oil. My personally solution is to try to use less power. I couldn’t understand why the government wasn’t trying to get the alternative companies going. But now I’m thinking, because they can’t tax sunshine and wind. I’m trying to make a solar collector. Hope me luck for that!
Fourth, the housing problem is ultimately our own fault to some degree. People were buying bigger houses with less people living in them. The government and banks were encouraging this, why I don’t understand. Obviously, they knew that there would be a financial crunch, but they were still putting people in harm’s way. In addition, I am blaming the government and the media for make the panic worse. And why are they telling the banks to not lend money? Now when people are loosing jobs and loosing houses and can’t afford gas they won’t lend money? What’s that about? Where exactly did the money go anyway?
Thanks, I feel better and I’m done.

By: David Brodbeck

David Brodbeck — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:57:08 +0000

My favorite Perot moment was when he brought charts to a radio debate.

By: Obamarama

Obamarama — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:16:58 +0000

Perot should endorse Obama if he wants change.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:51:54 +0000

Over 50% of the military budget is personel costs. Salaries, housing, food etc. If there were ‘lies’ told about Iraq’s WMD program they were invented before Bush ever took office. Clinton said so. Maybe Bush was naive in believing Clinton, I mean the man was a convicted liar, but Clinton had no personal interest in misrepresenting Iraq’s WMD capability. The British, the French, even Saddam’s
own generals believed the same. In some ways its like the man with his hand in his pocket feigning he has a gun. You tend to assume he does even if he doesn’t
show it. Saddam wanted the world to believe he had such weapons and the world did. It may even be that the bio weapons were spirited out of the country before the invasion. We never have discovered the origins of that weaponized anthrax that was in the mails after 9/11. We KNOW Saddam produced such material and that his government could not account for it. One small truck or airplane could have carried the entire stockpile known to have been produced to just about anywhere.Oh and the Soviet economy did collapse as do all economies that ignore free markets but their armanents industry survived and produced and still produces about the only manufactured goods the Russians can export to the world or that portion of it unable to buy US armaments so don’t be too quick to call military manufacturiing wasteful. The global market in weaponry is huge and lucrative.

By: exit

exit — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:21:22 +0000

got charts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
2007 GDP of the US is about $13.5 Trillion, expanding to about $14.5 T by mid this year

http://forecasts.org/gdp.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
US Military budget is $439 B for 2007 ($548 B according to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy08/hist.html)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2007.pngf
For 2007, military comprised some 20% of the federal budget

So - 20% of the budget, and 3% of US GDP.

You can dig as deep as you like into the data, but let’s ask these questions:

Wouldn’t the National Guard normally be helping out flood victims in the mid-west? Can they, now that for over 5 years so many have been deployed in the Middle East, a conflict which it’s now well established was started on falsified evidence of WMD’s (and other fantasy concoctions of Cheney, Perle, et al)?

The morally bankrupt leadership of this nation is leading us to impending fiscal bankruptcy, whatever numbers you look at. The one party system of Republicrats, essentially, is responsible - and so are you, and so am I.

We bought the hype - that we needed to consume rather than produce; that material goods rather than educational, social, and infrastructure improvements are the true totems of prosperity; that our leaders can be trusted.

The pendulum is inexorably swinging. Remember your high school physics? It reaches maximum velocity as it swings through the bottom of the arc. If, as the good Doctor has theorized, we’re still on the way down - watch out - the sharp blade is still gathering speed.