How to pay our debts? Tax the rich ofcourse.We have a society of homeless and families who are poor and millionaires who don't care about the poor!

@SlaveEt Your wish has been granted!

@Carazaa
In many ways, you are right. However, it can always be better. I would like to see the United States move back towards a much more capitalist framework than a socialist one. An honest republic would be nice too but we were talking economics, not political structures!

@SlaveEt How much education do you have? Just curious?

@SlaveEt compare life in the US from fifty years ago versus today, health, technology, abundance of food, etc , do you really want to move backwards? Do you have no empathy for those less well off than you? Do they deserve help to advance? Should society pay for their education? Should their safety and health be protected by society, aka the government?

@SlaveEt Jobs are not created by wealthy people alone. This is the libertarian fallacy.

@LeopoldBloom
Never said they were. I am saying jobs are not created by the poor. Also, the jobs that create wealth, as opposed to just moving it around, do come from entrepreneurs and the wealthy, as opposed to say, the government.

@SlaveEt perhaps in some ways. But, that philosophy has led to the so called trickle-down theory, proven never to have worked for any Republican administration who tried it, from Reagen to Trump.

@samueltyler2
My thought is that so long as regulations and monopolies don't prevent the average Joe from building and creating wealth, it trickles all it needs to. So long as there is equal opportunity people are free. If they choose to squander their opportunities their out comes will not be equal to those who seize them. But then, that's no ones problem but theirs😉

@SlaveEt without some regulations we are doomed to suffer as previous generations hav, when the bosses decide what was "right" for the workers. Have you ever read any works by the "Muckraker?" Unfortunately, without some regulations, the only rule is how much money can you earn!

@samueltyler2
Agreed. I didn't say no regulation😊

@SlaveEt how would you determine which then?

@SlaveEt The government's role is to fund projects that no private business would invest in because the risk is too high, like the space program or computers. Business then gets involved after the initial stage. Government can also move the economy in different directions through targeted tax breaks or grants. And of course, government has to regulate business as the free market's effect is very limited. The free market is great for stimulating competition, but sucks in ensuring that workers are paid adequately and that businesses don't destroy the environment in pursuit of profit. It's natural for a business to place short-term profit over the long-term health of the communities that support them.

@LeopoldBloom
It is the role of the local population to regulate the local businesses and the easiest way to do that is with one's money. The same is true at the national level. Budlite is a perfect example, lol.

@SlaveEt That didn't even work with Bud Light. Anheuser-Busch is one of the largest beer distributors in the world with hundreds of brands. The people "boycotting" Bud Light probably switched to one of AB's other brands.

We also have a fissured economy. Even if Bud Light was a single brand, people buying it have no idea where it sources its products. Let's say the farm that grows the barley that goes into it has serious worker safety issues, or the trucking company that transports it isn't paying its workers. There's no way the end consumer will even know about these problems, and even if they do, they have no way of organizing their purchasing power to have any effect. For that, you need government regulation.

The free market as a regulatory mechanism only works in theory; it doesn't work in the real world. This is why there has never been a libertarian economy even attempted on a national scale.