Obama threatens veto if defense bill funds F-22s (With "Friends like these . .)

[Soul Crusher]

I agree. If we are going to spend almost 1 trillion dollars on a Stimulus Bill, why can't the Govt. begin to start big infrastructure projects,like you mentioned, that would change the way we travel and the speed at which we do it?  Why give ALL the money directly to the state govt's so they can patch holes in their budgets, repave roads and throw it at god knows what else (I'm from IL so I know all about this)?

I believe that part of the reason was to make sure there was enough money thrown around in Dem. states to ensure victories for the incumbents come election time in a few years. Cynical, yes, but it makes sense.

China passed a real stimulus bill and its working. 

Its amazing, a communist country is more capitilistic than we are! 

The Chinese get it, we do not not. 

The Chinese know that en economy has to be based on production, not consumption.  The fool in the WH is cheering the fact that most new jobs may be in Education and Health Care.  Thats exactly the wrong direction!   

[GigantorX]

I won't argue with you on that because I have too little information to form a qualified opinion.

But regardless - if the military budget would shrink to 15-20 percent of the budget, there would be a lot of room for eg tax cuts.

My point was pretty much only that a huge military budget means that the taxes will go up.

Ok. The Defense budget is about $625 billion dollars, but it doesn't include all the other "tagged on" expenses like the 2 wars etc. So the real cost is closer, I've read, to about 1 trillion.

[Alex23]

The Chinese know that en economy has to be based on production, not consumption.  The fool in the WH is cheering the fact that most new jobs may be in Education and Health Care.  Thats exactly the wrong direction!  

Of course they understand that "theirs" is based on production; we are their consumers.

Being on top of the heap, we cannot have a strictly industrial production based economy, it just doesn't make sense; instead it makes sense to be cutting edge in technology R&D, medical science and financial services.

[GigantorX]

Of course they understand that "theirs" is based on production; we are their consumers.

Being on top of the heap, we cannot have a strictly industrial production based economy, it just doesn't make sense; instead it makes sense to be cutting edge in technology R&D, medical science and financial services.

Yep. China has little domestic consumption and a majority of the population (I believe the majority) still live in conditions that would make us cringe. Remember, China is a communist country with a state run media and heavy controls and what goes in and what goes out.

For our nation, I will agree with Alex23, we have passed our Industrial Revolution and now need to move on. We will never again assemble TV's or radios or CD players, we will leave that to cheaper and less skilled/educated labor, but we WILL produce that research necessary to design and engineer these products and also build the specialty parts and components that couldn't be handled elsewhere. Dow Corning in Michigan produces the clear panels for LCD screens, for example.

The only problem with this is organized labor and our relatively poor k-12 education system.

[headhuntersix]

Ok. The Defense budget is about $625 billion dollars, but it doesn't include all the other "tagged on" expenses like the 2 wars etc. So the real cost is closer, I've read, to about 1 trillion.

Thos tagged expenses go away in 2011, so the budget is the budget. Barry expects to take the savings from Iraq and roll it into other things. We're feeling it now. No more bonuses and they have cut 2 BDE's that they planned to stand up. They're also cutting back reenlisments. They need to trim 20,000 folks out. They also said they want to grow by 30K so i don't know what they're thinking either.

[headhuntersix]

China also has its share of problems internally. The economic zones were built with heavy investment and know-how from the West. Much of the building design and construction was from Western firms....

[Parker]

China passed a real stimulus bill and its working. 

Its amazing, a communist country is more capitilistic than we are! 

The Chinese get it, we do not not. 

The Chinese know that en economy has to be based on production, not consumption.  The fool in the WH is cheering the fact that most new jobs may be in Education and Health Care.  Thats exactly the wrong direction!   

I was listening to C-span where they were covering the their Stimulus Bill, experts and translators were saying that a typical Chinese household tend to have if I recall 50% debt whereas a typical American household has well over 100%. The Chinese tend to be very conservative with their spending, whereas Americans spend on the "have to have it" concept...Kinda odd in that if we were to spend conservatively, then they would have less goods to make, and therefore less cheap jobs, which would be mean trouble for not just the Chinese  economic situation, but their social system as well.

[headhuntersix]

I think they're becoming more Westernized and will spend more. We're told one minute to save and another to spend. The more infrastucture they build into the heartland, the more stuff they'll want.

[Parker]

I think they're becoming more Westernized and will spend more. We're told one minute to save and another to spend. The more infrastucture they build into the heartland, the more stuff they'll want.

They view alot of our stuff as the real deal, they view Chinese domestic stuff as well, cheap, tacky and not well made. Ironic uh? 

[headhuntersix]

Their rubber dog shit still reigns supreme. The more we export our culture, the less a threat China becomes.

[Alex23]

Their rubber dog shit still reigns supreme. The more we export our culture, the less a threat China becomes.

X10นบ

I don't understand why people have such a hard time seeing that;

A good friend of mine was pretty high up at IBM PC division. When they spun it off and the Lenovo "brand" was started they offered him a solid package to stick around. The company is chinese owned but they were smart enough to realize that they need the corporate culture to remain AMERICAN in order to succeed and learn from it; quite opposite of the the Japs used to do.

Now, what did IBM do with all the cash from the sale of its now commodity PC business? Rumor is it's being invested in optic processor research and the next generation of high performance chipsets.

[Hugo Chavez]

You are going to have to export a hell of a lot of culture   Way closer cultures have had war after war.  Even if we were the same, it's a simple propaganda campaign to instill rage in a population.  You guys read any history?  lol

[GigantorX]

X10นบ

I don't understand why people have such a hard time seeing that;

A good friend of mine was pretty high up at IBM PC division. When they spun it off and the Lenovo "brand" was started they offered him a solid package to stick around. The company is chinese owned but they were smart enough to realize that they need the corporate culture to remain AMERICAN in order to succeed and learn from it; quite opposite of the the Japs used to do.

Now, what did IBM do with all the cash from the sale of its now commodity PC business? Rumor is it's being invested in optic processor research and the next generation of high performance chipsets.

Not much in the way of profit margins from simply assembling PC's. Texas Instruments realized this when they spun of their Memory chip division. Give some nation the scraps and plow the money into the next generation of tech to remain dominant and one/two/three steps ahead of the competition. IBM learned this from their flirtations with bankruptcy not to long ago. They ditched all the basic shit and got into servers, tech and the like.

[Alex23]

You are going to have to export a hell of a lot of culture   Way closer cultures have had war after war.  Even if we were the same, it's a simple propaganda campaign to instill rage in a population.  You guys read any history?  lol

It's not about "exporting it", it's about globalizing it.

It's already too late anyway; the Victorians have layed the foundation over 100 years ago; globalized english.

You seriously think english will be toppled and instead "mandarin" will take over?

The American/Western Pop culture penetration only grows by the day; there are no replacements to pepsi/coca cola/Nike/McDonalds'/Hollywood....

Once corporations globalized, there are no way back.

[GigantorX]

It's not about "exporting it", it's about globalizing it.

It's already too late anyway; the Victorians have layed the foundation over 100 years ago; globalized english.

You seriously think english will be toppled and instead "mandarin" will take over?

The American/Western Pop culture penetration only grows by the day; there are no replacements to pepsi/coca cola/Nike/McDonalds'/Hollywood....

Once corporations globalized, there are no way back.

Just take a look at Japan. They are pretty xenophobic over there but they absolutely love American culture. All of it.