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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Okay, so you more or less take an anticonsumerist stance. How do you think this will affect the economy in the long run? I mean, you are basically advocating a drastically reduced economic activity, a kind of activity that is responsible for generating a bulk of the wealth in the United States. The demand shift would result in fewer imports, but it would also result in lowered domestic demand for goods. This also means lower tax revenue.
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Demand is going to settle at some honestly sustainable level. That means lowered revenue for businesses. But if there's not a Starbuck's on every corner and a Walmart in every neighborhood, I'm OK with that.
Less tax revenue means less government spending.
This also has the side effect of less damage to the environment since less perfectly good product gets thrown out to buy new. I drive a 16 year old sub-compact that is reliable transportation. I can easily replace it today but why should I waste the materials and energy used to build my current car before it's permanently broken?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Would you support regulations restricting the kind and amount of credit issued to borrowers based on income and other factors?
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I'm not a fan of nanny state regulations, including current nanny state regulations demanding that banks make credit more available, which is part of how we got here.
I'd leave it to the banks with the penalty that if they screw up, the government doesn't bail them out. Smart bankers will wise up pretty quickly. Stupid ones will be out of business.