The Current Recession

[Yoshi-Kirby]

Hey Temp. Debaters! I thought of this new topic as soon as I got accepted. At my school, and just about everywhere else I go, all I hear is people talking about the economy, which is now at a state called recession. Most people complain about the unemployment rising, and the economy going down further. Sometimes, I hear talk about McCain and Obama thrown in. Some people say that Obama will make the economy worse with his so called "Take from rich, give to poor" taxes. Others say that McCain would've done a better job. What do you guys think of the current situation of the economy? Do you think that it can be resolved soon, or will it take a long time? Will Obama help end this, or would McCain have been a better choice. I personally have no views on the current situation, but most say that McCain would've done better in my region. So, what do you guys think?

 

[Fletch]

Hey Temp. Debaters! I thought of this new topic as soon as I got accepted. At my school, and just about everywhere else I go, all I hear is people talking about the economy, which is now at a state called recession. Most people complain about the unemployment rising, and the economy going down further. Sometimes, I hear talk about McCain and Obama thrown in. Some people say that Obama will make the economy worse with his so called "Take from rich, give to poor" taxes. Others say that McCain would've done a better job. What do you guys think of the current situation of the economy? Do you think that it can be resolved soon, or will it take a long time? Will Obama help end this, or would McCain have been a better choice. I personally have no views on the current situation, but most say that McCain would've done better in my region. So, what do you guys think?

First off, for advice, I would definitely take a stance if you're going to start a topic, it gives something for the rest of the members to feed off of. As such, I'll get us started.

I'll preface my argument by saying that I am a heavy-leaning Libertarian, and was fully in support of McCain this last election. I believe the types of "socialist" policies that Obama was claiming/is claiming that he is going to enact will never work in a country like the United States, as it is simply too large to sustain this type of model, has too much greed, and was simply built on the ideals of the American dream. Obama is not going to destroy this spirit with a couple of tax changes and rampant government spending, and our markets have already responded quite negatively to his actions. Too me, Obama just seems way too inexperienced and idealistic, making claims that he was going to raise corporate tax rates which were already some of the highest in the world when American business was already doing poorly. I believe most of his claims were just to get the generic voter on his side, however, and don't see much of this enforced, although the stimulus package (which only contains 24% actual stimulus SOURCE: Wall Street Journal) does scare me.

People cite FDR's New Deal for support for Obama's plans, but there's also been a lot of proof that these only stagnated the economy rather than saved it. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened without the war to bring us back out.

 

[ArcPoint]

What's interesting is that the definition of a "recession" is two quarters of negative GDP. So far in the United States we have only experienced one quarter of negative GDP. (http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/10/31/third-quarter-gdp/) However, we're clearly on our way to that second quarter of negative GDP.

The New Deal was not the reason we got out of the Great Depression, in fact, after the New Deal, until 1940 (Around when World War II started, mind you) The unemployment rate in America was at 17%!! This "New Deal" did indeed REDUCE the amount of unemployment however it did NOT get it down to an acceptable level.

[quote =http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/11/about_that_new_new_deal.html;0] Some of Roosevelt's reforms were salutary (the Securities and Exchange Commission, reform of the Federal Reserve) but the New Deal's chief object was never achieved -- it did not solve the nation's unemployment problem. The CATO Institute's Jim Powell points out in "FDR's Folly," "From 1934 to 1940, the median annual unemployment rate was 17.2. At no point during the 1930s did unemployment go below 14 percent. ... Living standards remained depressed until after the war." Stanford University history professor David Kennedy has acknowledged, "Whatever it was, the New Deal was not a recovery program, or at any rate not an effective one." [/quote]

The Stimulus package is a questionable package at best, sure it has some things that actually do help, but the large majority (as stated by Fletch) still is just Pork Barrel.