Frank solves the national debt

[Frank the Tank]

Things like this keep me up at night. I'm not sure of exact figures, but our national debt is staggering. I mean, seriously, there has to come a point when we cannot make the interest payments on the money our country owes. What happens then? Makes me shudder.

So, my plan:

Have a national lottery. Take $1 every day from every Canadians already ridiculously high taxes (perhaps from the welfare portion ) and put it into a lottery. Every business day, make five Canadians millionaires. Thats $25 million a week in payouts, the rest goes straight to the debt.

Seriously. Why wouldn't this work? (I know the logistics would be hard, besides that I mean)

I know I'd do it.

*This idea is copywrited by Frank the Tank*

[Red]

Nah, too much work. They will just raise taxes instead
________
Oregon medical marijuana

[Frank the Tank]

Aw c'mon!! This plan is brilliant! And I'm not even an Economist/Accountant!!

[Five-hole]

Jesus, could you imagine the outcry about conflicts of interest and favoritism based on who won a government lottery with tax money? Sounds ugly.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally posted by Five-hole@May 19 2005, 03:21 PM
Jesus, could you imagine the outcry about conflicts of interest and favoritism based on who won a government lottery with tax money? Sounds ugly.

Problem #1. How to get a completely unbias draw. Maybe I'll have to draw the names every day.

[CaptainCrunch]

I have the best plan ever to clear the debt.

all MP's put thier American Express cards into a pile.

One is drawn from the pile

MP pays off national debt with the credit card

Declares bankruptsy

National debt is now the responsibility of American Express.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally posted by Frank the Tank@May 19 2005, 12:55 PM
Things like this keep me up at night. I'm not sure of exact figures, but our national debt is staggering. I mean, seriously, there has to come a point when we cannot make the interest payments on the money our country owes. What happens then? Makes me shudder.

So, my plan:

Have a national lottery. Take $1 every day from every Canadians already ridiculously high taxes (perhaps from the welfare portion ) and put it into a lottery. Every business day, make five Canadians millionaires. Thats $25 million a week in payouts, the rest goes straight to the debt.

Seriously. Why wouldn't this work? (I know the logistics would be hard, besides that I mean)

I know I'd do it.

*This idea is copywrited by Frank the Tank*

I'm loving the lottery idea- with a slight twist. Make it voluntary and tax deductable. Plus, make whatever interest is saved go into program spending.

Pay out say 10% of what's put in. If I want to put $10,000 into the debt lottery instead of an RRSP so be it. If I win, I'm a millionaire. If I don't, I've paid down the debt by 9k, and have forevermore contributed $400 a year or so to our golden social safety net.

[Claeren]

Canadian debt is well under control these days though. The liberals (regardles of whether you are a fan) have made subtantial porgress in making payments and have cut debt as a % of GDP by a HUGE amount.

It is American debt i would be more concerned about.... 'George Bush the Great Leader the II' alone has added more then 5 TIMES more to it in the last 5 years then Canada has total!!! That is on top of the 7+ Trillion that was already there....


Claeren.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally posted by Claeren@May 19 2005, 07:21 PM
Canadian debt is well under control these days though. The liberals (regardles of whether you are a fan) have made subtantial porgress in making payments and have cut debt as a % of GDP by a HUGE amount.

I wouldn't agree with that at all, though admittedly its a matter of perspective.

We've grown our way out of the debt to GDP ratio. And certainly the Libs deserve some credit for running balanced budgets for 7 years to allow that to happen.

Actual debt paydown has been relatively small.

And though the ratio looks better, the feds still spend more on debt servicing than they do on any social prgram - 40 odd billion dollars.

[Lurch]

How much debt is right for a country? I know of next to no businesses that operate debt free, and there are a lot of good reasons. Paying for infrastructure with operating funds is poor policy, IMO, so there will always be a need for debt. Also, the majority of Cdn debt is likely held by Canadians (wish I had a stat) and provides a valuable risk management tool for portfolios in that government of Canada bonds are probably one of the safest investments in the world (especially for a Canadian who spends Canadian dollars in Canada).

How about the US? Here is a great article with an excerpt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5051701238.html

"All true," Sawhill, a budget official in the Clinton administration, concurred.

"To do nothing," Butler [Heritage Foundation, right wing group] added, "would lead to deficits of the scale we've never seen in this country or any major in industrialized country. We've seen them in Argentina. That's a chilling thought, but it would mean that."

Each of the three had a separate slide show, but the numbers and forecasts were interchangeable.

Walker put U.S. debt and obligations at $45 trillion in current dollars -- almost as much as the total net worth of all Americans, or $150,000 per person. Balancing the budget in 2040, he said, could require cutting total federal spending as much as 60 percent or raising taxes to 2 1/2 times today's levels.

[Claeren]

I am not sure of the exact number but i believe total debt repayment since 1993 has been ~40 Billion. That is not just GDP growth...

EDIT:

reduced Canada’s public debt since 1997, when the budget was balanced. Since then, the government repaid $54 billion in debt through six successive budget surpluses. The debt ratio declined from more than 70 percent of GDP in 1994 to less than 40 percent at present (second-best in the G7).

Claeren.

[HOZ]

About 600 billion (American) dollars or 23000 per person.

[Claeren]

Originally posted by HOZ@May 20 2005, 07:47 AM
About 600 billion (American) dollars or 23000 per person.

I am not sure of the context of your post... ?

Claeren.

[Cheese]

nah...best is still this...

Trade Quebec for Columbia.

Use the money generated from the Cocaine Cartel to pay off the debt. (1 year max)

Sell Columbia for Hawaii or any other Vacation Island.

[notoepik]

We are not going to trade you Hawaii for Columbia!!

If we wanted Columbia we would just take it

[Coolsurfer79]

Originally posted by Lurch@May 20 2005, 07:21 AM
How much debt is right for a country? I know of next to no businesses that operate debt free, and there are a lot of good reasons. Paying for infrastructure with operating funds is poor policy, IMO, so there will always be a need for debt. Also, the majority of Cdn debt is likely held by Canadians (wish I had a stat) and provides a valuable risk management tool for portfolios in that government of Canada bonds are probably one of the safest investments in the world (especially for a Canadian who spends Canadian dollars in Canada).

How about the US? Here is a great article with an excerpt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5051701238.html

I think you stated the most important point. Most the debt is held by Canadians so all that debt servicing ends up in the pocket of Canadians anyway.

[Claeren]

But those people could invest in Canadian companies instead of government and provide a low interest pool of capitol creating thousands of jobs and making the entire economy lean and competitive....

Debt is bad, there is no upside...


Claeren.

[Frank the Tank]

Or, they could pay a dollar a day and have five chances per day of becoming a millionaire!! This idea is genius I tell you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally posted by Claeren@May 20 2005, 07:33 AM
I am not sure of the exact number but i believe total debt repayment since 1993 has been ~40 Billion. That is not just GDP growth...

EDIT:

Claeren.

50 billion sounds like a lot, but that's against overall spending of close to 2 trillion, and program spending increases of about 40% over the same time frame.

It's like me throwing $500 on my mortgage.

[Coolsurfer79]

Originally posted by Claeren@May 21 2005, 09:07 AM
But those people could invest in Canadian companies instead of government and provide a low interest pool of capitol creating thousands of jobs and making the entire economy lean and competitive....

Debt is bad, there is no upside...


Claeren.

Many of those people do invest in Canadian companies as does the government. In fact most that money ends up going to Canadian companies eventually. Everything I've learned in senior Macroeconomic level courses say that debt does not matter if it is held by Canadians. Canadians get the money from the interest paid on the debt and they invest it as they see fit. And I would like you to provide me an analysis of why debt is bad. That is is always bad is something I would like more to hear about it because in a dozen economic courses at University I never came across this hypothesis and would like to understand it better.