many countries are in debt, what if......
many countries are in debt, what if......
Author
Discussion

al bebak

Original Poster:

153 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
i am very much a layman in world economy so take it easy on me.
most or many many countries are up to there eyes in debt with the world banks.
why cant all the countries that are in debt have a large part of the debts wiped at a rate or amount per million people for each country.
those countries not in debt receive the same amount per million people, all this being paid via i suppose the imf.
basically we start again but those countries not in debt start richer than those in debt.
i am obviously not bright enough to work out the details in full but i really cant get my head around who we and many other countries really owe this money too, and why we dont as a group of countries just say where not paying it.
hopefully someone will reply with more brains than me so i wont make myself appear any more daft than i already have.

tinman0

18,231 posts

270 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
Sounds like a good idea.

You start by zeroing your pension wink

davepoth

29,395 posts

229 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
It would be lovely, but the countries are in hock to private banks, who quite like the interest they get.

al bebak

Original Poster:

153 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
davepoth said:
It would be lovely, but the countries are in hock to private banks, who quite like the interest they get.
surely the case should be countries run the world not banks.
it just dont make sense all of this, i could understand if it was one or two countries just trying it on but the whole worlds a mess.
and too top it off where borrowing 10B pa or so to give it too some one else.

tinman0

18,231 posts

270 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
al bebak said:
surely the case should be countries run the world not banks.
it just dont make sense all of this, i could understand if it was one or two countries just trying it on but the whole worlds a mess.
and too top it off where borrowing 10B pa or so to give it too some one else.
Well thats fine in theory, but if you would like a reduced welfare system, or less health care cover, then by all means, Governments won't need to borrow money and so forth.

But the trouble is that people want all these nice things and the only way Government can afford it is to borrow occasionally.

Which is all very well, until recently when more than a few countries went out on absolute crazy borrowing/spending benders like never seen before.

Did you vote Conservative? If not, then you are part of the problem. wink

al bebak

Original Poster:

153 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
[quote=tinman0]

Well thats fine in theory, but if you would like a reduced welfare system, or less health care cover, then by all means, Governments won't need to borrow money and so forth.

But the trouble is that people want all these nice things and the only way Government can afford it is to borrow occasionally.

Which is all very well, until recently when more than a few countries went out on absolute crazy borrowing/spending benders like never seen before.

Did you vote Conservative? If not, then you are part of the problem. wink[/quote
ive always voted conservative.
im not saying dont borrow in the future, just some how start again.
i dont disagree with many of the cuts that are in place.
really i suppose what im saying is with all the brains around the world you would think someone would come up with a better method of fixing the mess than the way its being dealt with.
basically its a vicious circle that will and can only get worse for us but better for the institutions.

tinman0

18,231 posts

270 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
al bebak said:
basically its a vicious circle that will and can only get worse for us but better for the institutions.
But look at who is lending the money - it's your pension company. So if that gets hit, your retirement gets hit.

I totally agree with you that government borrowing needs to be lower, but the lesson that should be learned is one of repaying your debts rather than a financial fudge to get out of paying your debts.

al bebak

Original Poster:

153 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th May 2011
quotequote all
tinman0 said:
But look at who is lending the money - it's your pension company. So if that gets hit, your retirement gets hit.

I totally agree with you that government borrowing needs to be lower, but the lesson that should be learned is one of repaying your debts rather than a financial fudge to get out of paying your debts.
ok, so do you believe that its all being dealt with right, if not what other ways are there.
it just seems to me that we are never going to get out of this mess, its never ending.
i wouldnt want any of the other parties dealing with it, but we know that when/if we get back on a level playing field david cameron will be out the door and the other lot will be back too start at all over again.

davepoth

29,395 posts

229 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
Your argument is logical. If everyone sat down and said "there's no debt any more" everything would work out eventually. But nobody is willing to give up even a little bit, and so we will carry on.

Motorhead Nutter

58 posts

273 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
Cannot be done. A 'debt' to one party is a savings fund to another. Like one of the posters above said, to do it means wiping out your pension fund etc etc.

What we need is acceptance and implementation of realistic standards. 65 was fine as a retirement age if people die 3-5 years later. The model was affordable under the original standards: Work 18-65, die 70. It's a joke nowadays. People want free education until 22, retire 60-65 and live to 85. More years out than your paying in!!

Socialists need a maths lesson and society needs to understand what is affordable. As it stands it's one big ponzi scheme.

Edited by Motorhead Nutter on Thursday 26th May 01:28

slipstream 1985

13,778 posts

209 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
china would have a thing or 2 to say about it

thinfourth2

32,414 posts

234 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
tinman0 said:
Did you vote Conservative? If not, then you are part of the problem. wink
And how much have they borrowed in the last year?

If you vote you are part of the problem.

If politicians weren't trying to buy our votes then they wouldn't borrow so much to buy them.

Pints

18,451 posts

224 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
thinfourth2 said:
And how much have they borrowed in the last year?

If you vote you are part of the problem.

If politicians weren't trying to buy our votes then they wouldn't borrow so much to buy them.
I can't help wondering if you've been appointed my official nemesis. Almost every time a post gets me wound up, it's got your name next to it. smile

Do you have a workable alternative to democracy? Ok, so it might be labelled as such, yet not be truly democratic, but it's probably the best we've got. Things aren't so hot in self-appointed dictatorship regimes right now (take a look at North Africa, the middle east and North Korea for a few examples). And there aren't that many benevolent dictators knocking about offering to sort the economic mess out, all in a capitalist environment.

hondafanatic

4,969 posts

231 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
Pints said:
thinfourth2 said:
And how much have they borrowed in the last year?

If you vote you are part of the problem.

If politicians weren't trying to buy our votes then they wouldn't borrow so much to buy them.
I can't help wondering if you've been appointed my official nemesis. Almost every time a post gets me wound up, it's got your name next to it. smile
AAAhhhhhhhhhhhhh....So it was thinfourth2 that got it.

I'm still waiting for my interview feedback.

thinfourth2

32,414 posts

234 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
Pints said:
I can't help wondering if you've been appointed my official nemesis. Almost every time a post gets me wound up, it's got your name next to it. smile

Do you have a workable alternative to democracy? Ok, so it might be labelled as such, yet not be truly democratic, but it's probably the best we've got. Things aren't so hot in self-appointed dictatorship regimes right now (take a look at North Africa, the middle east and North Korea for a few examples). And there aren't that many benevolent dictators knocking about offering to sort the economic mess out, all in a capitalist environment.
Thats the bummer whats the alternative but this whole vote for party X as we promise you more stuff then party Y is starting to look a tad iffy once they discovered the joys of the giant credit card. We are sat here with a huge countrywide plasma telly with water pissing in the countrywide roof and the garden path is knackered.

I think some sort of random selection of MPs might be a good idea.

But as the wise one once said "Anyone who wants to be a politician should immediately be banned from ever being a politician"

BoRED S2upid

21,073 posts

270 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
Are we still borrowing 10BN PA?

If so then we are never going to be able to pay this back are we? its going to take tens if not hundreds of years to get back in the black.

matsmith

1,166 posts

239 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
BoRED S2upid said:
Are we still borrowing 10BN PA?

If so then we are never going to be able to pay this back are we? its going to take tens if not hundreds of years to get back in the black.
No. We borrow more than that per month; we will borrow in the region of £160 Billion this year.

Dracoro

9,035 posts

275 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
AFAIK, "countries" don't own each others, it's the people/businesses that owe each other.

So, what seems to be suggested is that you "Joe Bloggs" should wipe off £100k that Jose Bloggs of Spain owes you because Manuel Messi owes me "John Smith" £100k.

I get MY £100k wiped off and YOU lose £100k.

Sound like a good plan...........

Corsair7

20,911 posts

277 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
slipstream 1985 said:
china would have a thing or 2 to say about it
And so what? Without the consumers of the west CHina would be nothing. CHina would only be worried if we stopped buying their goods full stop, and that wont happen even in this scenario. In fact, without all the 'debt servicing', the west would have even more money to spend on chinese goods.

don4l

10,058 posts

206 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
quotequote all
tinman0 said:
Did you vote Conservative? If not, then you are part of the problem. wink
The Conservatives are borrowing as much as Labour would have done.

Your question should read "Did you vote UKIP? If not, then you are part of the problem."

Cameron set out his stall before the election. It was clearly a socialist agenda. Yet, traditional Tories simply voted to keep Labour out. furious

Don
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