/lit/ - Literature

>>19970856
Every middle class idiot is afraid of debt and believes in the virtues of "living within your means". Congratulations on achieving midwit status

>>16152660
You never heard of stuff like the Strategic Defense Initiative? That had private sector spill over effects, it was a way of subsidizing high tech to outcompete Japan. Reagan got elected claiming he would lower public spending (he increased it) and by lowering taxes would create balanced budgets (Laffer curve moron logic). Lower taxes and more spending on the military actually lead to higher public deficits but did result in increased consumer spending. Trump got elected claiming similar things but his public debt legacy might be so comically large that there won't be a Clinton able to "fix" the problem.

>>13615150
>Croney-capitalism and consumerism are the real issues
le verb noun also no, consumption is fucking awesome and not consuming sucks

>>13615503
Only reactionaries are against "consumerism", from le classical liberals to Hitler, to mask declining living standards as a virtue. The truth is "leisure time" never ever increased because of "productivity" growth, it was always legislated historically. When unions decided to fight for "higher" wages instead of shorter work days things started going bad.

>>13615647
Well since most aren't even really dependent upon a wage and are just manipulating the public and shareholders expectations, no.

>>13616025
Dude interest rates are literally negative in some parts of the world already. You'll still be whining when interest rates are negative.

>>13616062
>conspicuous consumerism specifically is actually a good thing though
No it's not, there's no need to incentivize saving cash hoards or digging up gold to store in vaults but encouraging being a retard instead of investment in socially useful activities is dumb

>>9345367
Those men both made their fortunes thanks to the government. Musk directly sucks the tit of government for contracts and subsidies continuously and that's the basis of his whole business model. Thiel got rich off artificially inflated entrepreneurial profits thanks to government monopolies in the form of patents and regulations favouring his businesses like paypal.
Without the state the rate of profit would collapse and capitalism would end. The reality is the government and capitalists form a symbiotic relationship to exploit the proletariats surplus value.