S&P Downgrades U.S. Debt for First Time - WSJ.com

MISSING THE FOREST AND MAKING THINGS TOO COMPLEX WHEN THEY ARE SIMPLE: S&P Downgrades U.S. Debt for First Time - WSJ.com
Comment:

"... an analogy between a household's finances (or a companies', state's or municipal government's ...) and the Federal Government's, with a sovereign currency, is just plain ludicrous...Boehner and his ilk ... are terrorists... The GOP has been hijacked by the Tea Party and the religious right... I now recognize the role of the Federal Government to "promote the general welfare" of it's citizens. The Dems are no better! The Gov. needs to step up to the plate and put dollars into the hands of the consumer, not banksters & Wall Street. It's about jobs not debt."

Response:

Your circular argument would appear to miss the simple drivers that you confuse with complex drivers of the economy.

Think simply about where you end up - i.e. jobs.

Think simply about what encourages you to make a job for someone else.

Then think of the things that might make you do the work yourself, postpone the work or maybe hire a contractor instead of an employee.

Think about how you are going to pay for the work, etc.

Instead of making it an 'us vs. them', which is the Democratic mantra, think of it always as an 'us'. Thus, the family analogy is much closer to point and far from ludicrous.

By making the 'big picture' of the economy too complex, everyone misses its simplicity. That's why we had a housing bubble and most people missed it. The simple fact was: how could house prices go up faster than incomes - by a large margin - when there weren't any constraints on new supply?

What society and Democrats don't want to face today is that they are going to have to say 'no' to many, many people. Paul Ryan is telling the truth about Medicare and no one really wants to hear it - especially if relying on it or using it for political talking points.

As for the Republicans, I agree with you that much of its policies (including Mr. Bush's) were hijacked by the anti-abortion, anti-gay agendas of the religious right.

The religious right and the Democrats have something in common - they both know better how people (them) should lead their lives.

I'm not a psychologist who can tell you how to get people to give up deeply felt beliefs; but, as Mark Twain said, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."