Federal Obligations Exceed World's GDP

[DarrinS]

The gripe that we've been living beyond our means is obvious and it has already had disastrous macroeconomic results.

Yes, many of us do live beyond are means and it has had a negative impact on the economy.

But having a very high standard of living should be our goal and we shouldn't feel guilty about it.

[Winehole23]

But having a very high standard of living should be our goal and we shouldn't feel guilty about it.

I agree with you, with the stipulation that that a return to the previous status quo would be unhealthy. The economic pattern of the last 17 tears isn't sustainable. In the short run, this necessarily means a regression in the US standard of living. In the medium to long term our debt load, monetary policy and en lements will conduce to the same effect.

In relative terms our standard of living will still be very high, but the idea that pre-panic levels of affluence can be restored is panglossian IMO.

[Marcus Bryant]

You do realize we're dinosaurs, right? Pining for the restoration of the first 100 years of the US republic is a worthy philosophical position but it is an antique and a conversation piece more than a viable ideology. The liberalism of the 18th century is way too conservative even for most so-called conservatives, and there's no way to put the welfare state back in the box absent some kind of radical, precipitating event IMO. At least, not without a great deal of social pain.

Exactly. Conservatism and "Liberalism" these days are nothing more than two different flavors of one's views on the relation of the state and the tone of the state in regard to certain social matters (yes, the hot button ones such as abortion, sexual marriage, etc). Do you want more of an urban secular or a rural/suburban religious feel to the federal government? Yes, there will be some policy differences, but by and large the role of the state in American life today has been established. That's why the allegedly arch-conservative Bush pushed through the largest expansion in an en lement program since the 1960s.

Yes, classical liberalism was quite radical. Perhaps humans can never go along with such a framework because there is too great an interest in telling other people how to live. Of course not to mention the inability of politicians with less than superhuman morals to resist being bought off.

[Winehole23]

Winehole23, haven't you noticed the defining aspect of conservatives nowadays? It's fear.

Don't get me wrong... the left has a good amount of doomsayers along the global warming front as well. But it's not the overriding factor that it is for so many conservatives.

True, with the proviso that demagoguery isn't proprietary. It accentuates and "sells" the real crisis that will provide the Obama administration with opportunities for dramatic changes in policy, so expect to see more fear from the Dems. For Obama, our economic fracaso is the functional equivalent of 9/11, though IMO the dangers it poses the country are far greater.

Fear, misinformation and fake outrage is about 90% of retail politics. I don't really see that changing. It works too well.