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Ron Paul is somewhat an illogical idiot.. ever hear of the 1920s crash? We got out of that situation by guess.wait for it.. debt spending in ramping up to fight

• Uhhrrr 15y ago
  You do know that there was an interval of twelve years between the Crash of '29 and our entry into WWII, right?
  • jellicle 15y ago
    Not sure what your point is. The Great Depression didn't end for the U.S. until World War II had begun and the U.S. had embarked on a massive public spending program - buying weapons.
    • skylan_q 15y ago
      GDP rose during the war, but it felt like a depression. What good is an increase in GDP if basic foodstuffs need to be rationed and people are getting killed? The recovery actually came in the post-war boom when government spending was slashed and 5 million people left military operations and joined the civilian workforce.
      • cwp 15y ago
        Right. So ideally, we want a big public spending program without a war.
        • brc 15y ago
          No, you want lots of people to enter the workforce and be productive. The growth happened after the government spending (ie, military) was wound down. It was the retiring servicemen and women wanting to get on with the rest of their lives that caused the productivity boom.
          • cwp 15y ago
            Really? You think that the government spending lots of money on the war is not what got us out of the Depression? Of course the boom happened after the war was over. During the war... there was a war on. All that effort was getting dropped on Europe instead of raising the standard of living in the US. People may not have had a lot material luxuries during the war, but they sure weren't unemployed.
    • clarky07 15y ago
      The point is that it wasn't just us borrowing more money. We did that for 12 years with no real success. The war brought huge amounts of demand for our goods from all over the world.
      • learc83 15y ago
        We also underwent forced austerity measures through rationing.
      • jellicle 15y ago
        No, the war brought huge amount of demand for goods from the U.S. Government, which wanted tanks and fighters and artillery shells. This demand created full employment and economic rebound - during the war. Even - gasp! - women were sucked into the labor force. After the war, the U.S. was in a great position to supply the world, having an economy running at full steam and no war damage to repair. But the Great Depression ended as war began, due to demand for military equipment.
• brc 15y ago
  You do forget or skip over 12 long years of massive spending and borrowing in order to try and get the economy going. Spending and borrowing that, by any objective measure, achieved very little in economic terms. When excessive debt is the problem, no amount of spending can cure it. The debt must be paid down or written off, most likely a combination of both. Sadly your type of thinking is pervasive because it sounds so compelling. But while nobody in their right mind runs up a credit card thinking that this will somehow make them richer, there persists a widespread belief that borrowing and spending somehow makes a country better off. It doesn't, and it won't. If anything positive is to come out of all of this, it might be the final discrediting of borrow and spend programs created in the name of Keynes. It will hopefully be the death of the widespread belief that you can borrow or tax your way to prosperity. Perhaps someone will come up with a kindergarten rhyme to teach children not to believe in free lunches.