We Could EASILY Fix Inflation Without Raising Rates

[red viking]

It's very simple. Just raise taxes. Make the middle class pay more and the rich pay MUCH MORE (their fair share). Deficit spending is a huge source of inflation and how this mess started in the first place under Fat Donny. Writing checks to almost everybody. We didn't see the results until the very end of his term but it was inevitable. Biden just continued it and a huge part of this has always been our legislature. 

None of the Democrats want to talk about cutting spending and none of the Republicans want to talk about raising taxes. So, they compromise by increasing spending AND cutting taxes at the same time. 

Biden's plan to provide a tax break for mortgage interest will only INCREASE home prices AND INFLATION. 

If we significantly decreased the deficit through more taxes and/or less spending, we wouldn't have to increase interest rates at all. Nobody seems to be talking about this. It's amazing how dumb the average person is. 

 

[Ohio Elite]

17 minutes ago, red viking said:

It's very simple. Just raise taxes. Make the middle class pay more and the rich pay MUCH MORE (their fair share). Deficit spending is a huge source of inflation and how this mess started in the first place under Fat Donny. Writing checks to almost everybody. We didn't see the results until the very end of his term but it was inevitable. Biden just continued it and a huge part of this has always been our legislature. 

None of the Democrats want to talk about cutting spending and none of the Republicans want to talk about raising taxes. So, they compromise by increasing spending AND cutting taxes at the same time. 

Biden's plan to provide a tax break for mortgage interest will only INCREASE home prices AND INFLATION. 

If we significantly decreased the deficit through more taxes and/or less spending, we wouldn't have to increase interest rates at all. Nobody seems to be talking about this. It's amazing how dumb the average person is. 

 

What and who do you consider middle class?

[red viking]

13 minutes ago, Ohio Elite said:

What and who do you consider middle class?

That's subjective and may depend upon location, but I'd say it would include the majority of the population. A reasonable estimate would be everybody between the 15 to 20th & 80 to 85th percentiles of income. The majority of us should be paying higher taxes IMO. 

[Ohio Elite]

3 minutes ago, red viking said:

That's subjective and may depend upon location, but I'd say it would include the majority of the population. A reasonable estimate would be everybody between the 15 to 20th & 80 to 85th percentiles of income. The majority of us should be paying higher taxes IMO. 

So pay higher taxes for lower groceries?

[red viking]

Maybe you don't understand that we've been underpaying for our services in general, and that has driven inflation in the first place. Long term, we'll have less inflation if we pay higher taxes. 

You gotta get out of the myopic mindset (which politiicans take advantage of) and think long-term. 

[red viking]

Next thing you know, Biden (or Fat Donny if/when he gets elected) and Congress will propose sending out another check to everybody to help make up for inflation. Short-term thinking, which completely backfires. I seriously wouldn't be surprised. 

[Ohio Elite]

3 minutes ago, red viking said:

Next thing you know, Biden (or Fat Donny if/when he gets elected) and Congress will propose sending out another check to everybody to help make up for inflation. Short-term thinking, which completely backfires. I seriously wouldn't be surprised. 

How about less taxes? Then we have more money for purchasing stuff. I don't trust either party with my money. You shouldn't either. Probably gonna all get sent to Ukraine anyway.  If you want Elon and Bezos to pay more, I got no issue with that.

[red viking]

Huh? Lower taxes more so deficit and inflation go up even more? Great idea. You should definitely go into politics. 

Edited March 14 by red viking

[red viking]

I could see cutting spending AND increasing taxes. Realistically, that is probably the best way to do it (just a little of each) because otherwise there's going to be mob violence. 

Personally, I'd completely gut the military and that would reduce our overall budget by at least 10%, but I know that wouldn't be popular. 

[Ohio Elite]

42 minutes ago, red viking said:

I could see cutting spending

Hey hey hey...

Now we're getting somewhere.

[mspart]

2 hours ago, red viking said:

If we significantly decreased the deficit through more taxes and/or less spending, we wouldn't have to increase interest rates at all. Nobody seems to be talking about this. It's amazing how dumb the average person is. 

 

Yes, lets do the latter.   Keep the former to a minimum. 

mspart

[JimmyBT]

Cut spending.  And then cut more spending.  

[Ohio Elite]

3 minutes ago, JimmyBT said:

Cut spending.  And then cut more spending.  

No...  Let's give the government more money. That sounds like a genius idea!

[JimmyBT]

7 minutes ago, Ohio Elite said:

No...  Let's give the government more money. That sounds like a genius idea!

Anything the gov touches turns to shit.  I can’t name one thing the gov is in charge of that runs efficiently or effectively.  None. Giving them more money to waste is flat out stupid. 

[mspart]

NPS isn't bad.   But other than that, the Feds waste a lot of money.  

mspart

[ionel]

2 hours ago, JimmyBT said:

Cut spending.  And then cut more spending.  

 

2 hours ago, mspart said:

Yes, lets do the latter.   Keep the former to a minimum. 

mspart

 

We could also lower consumer food cost by eating more moose meat.  Saw reported on another forum that moose meat is good and we all know they are big so feed a lot of folks.  Who doesn't like free food?

Edited March 15 by ionel

[Offthemat]

Without raising what  rates?  Interest, tax, unemployment?  Fat chance. Must mean crime rates. 

[JimmyBT]

3 hours ago, mspart said:

NPS isn't bad.   But other than that, the Feds waste a lot of money.  

mspart

I stand corrected.  Our National Parks System is pretty good 

[Wrestleknownothing]

Inflation is primarily a monetary problem. Deficits are fiscal and have secondary effects. Taxes are also very hard to change while interest rates and money supply are not.

And inflation is already a tax of its own. Raising taxes will make the economy worse, not better.

Edited March 15 by Wrestleknownothing

[WrestlingRasta]

If only people in Washington spent more time reading the wrestling page’s non-wrestling board. Shit would get fixed real quick. 

[red viking]

Some of the B.S. I see on here is exactly why we have politicians that make horrible long-term decisions. People actually want bigger deficits. Services such as a fat bloated military, weapons, and handouts to other countries but they don't want to pay for them. Then they complain about inflation. 

We're getting EXACTLY what we deserve with the high inflation. This is also why the dollar will eventually collapse. 

[red viking]

8 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Inflation is primarily a monetary problem. Deficits are fiscal and have secondary effects. Taxes are also very hard to change while interest rates and money supply are not.

And inflation is already a tax of its own. Raising taxes will make the economy worse, not better.

You're showing a lot of ignorance. Both fiscal and monetary policy contribute greatly to inflation. If we narrowed the deficit enough, inflation would completely disappear without having to have high interest rates. The deficit is basically the printing of money. 

Our bloated deficit spending that started shorty after COVID is the #1 reason by far why we've had high inflation since then. And the deficit is still very high. 

[Wrestleknownothing]

15 minutes ago, red viking said:

You're showing a lot of ignorance. Both fiscal and monetary policy contribute greatly to inflation. If we narrowed the deficit enough, inflation would completely disappear without having to have high interest rates. The deficit is basically the printing of money. 

Our bloated deficit spending that started shorty after COVID is the #1 reason by far why we've had high inflation since then. And the deficit is still very high. 

While your "if you disagree with me you must be ignorant" argument may be effective with others, it does not move me.

How can you raise taxes quickly enough to bring inflation in as quickly as it has come in? In short, you cannot. This is why raising rates, and decreasing the money supply are much more effective for squeezing inflation quickly. This then buys time to work on the fiscal aspects. And the only aspect of fiscal policy I am interested in changing is the spending side, not the taxation side. The reality is that when taxes go up, so does spending. The spending side is the problem.

Of course, you can always volunteer to pay more in taxes. I will not object to that.

[red viking]

Fed started raising interest rates a couple years ago. That obviously takes some time to start feeling those effects also, since inflation is still too high and that took several months before noticing anything. Which one works more quickly isn't really relevant because the bloated deficit spending is what got us here in the first place and why the money supply grew so much during that time. We're STILL doing it and it's working against what the fed is doing. 

You can raise taxes VERY quickly, if our politicians want to. You can also decrease spending on our fat & bloated military. 

Of course you ONLY want to address spending. Two problems with that. Others are NOT willing to cut spending but only willing to address taxes. And people like you usually refuse to address our fat/bloated military spending. You are a perfect example of why we can't get anywhere with out deficit. The ONLY compromise is to decrease taxes AND increase spending at the same time and that makes the solution worse. 

In reality, we MUST cut the deficit and realistically this means increasing taxes and decreasing spending at the same time. And not just on entitlements but also the bloated military. Powell generally refuses to comment on fiscal policies but even he admitted that the current fiscal policy is unsustainable. 

Edited March 15 by red viking

[Offthemat]

35 minutes ago, red viking said:

Some of the B.S. I see on here is exactly why we have politicians that make horrible long-term decisions. People actually want bigger deficits. Services such as a fat bloated military, weapons, and handouts to other countries but they don't want to pay for them. Then they complain about inflation. 

We're getting EXACTLY what we deserve with the high inflation. This is also why the dollar will eventually collapse. 

 

13 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

While your "if you disagree with me you must be ignorant" argument may be effective with others, it does not move me.

How can you raise taxes quickly enough to bring inflation in as quickly as it has come in? In short, you cannot. This is why raising rates, and decreasing the money supply are much more effective for squeezing inflation quickly. This then buys time to work on the fiscal aspects. And the only aspect of fiscal policy I am interested in changing is the spending side, not the taxation side. The reality is that when taxes go up, so does spending. The spending side is the problem.

Of course, you can always volunteer to pay more in taxes. I will not object to that.

While inflation can be caused by, or explained as, too much money chasing too few goods, in this run it is more driven by increased costs.  Energy costs.  Caused by Biden’s policies on petroleum production.  He restricted production as much as he could and took a larger chunk of the profits. The money the gov’t hands out is an aggravation, not the driver.  But the spiral has begun, and if history is any guide, it won’t end without much suffering.