Do you think a conservative government would lead us back into a recession?

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   seanorjohnposted 14 years ago

   Do you think a conservative government would lead us back into a recession?

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   DavidHill76posted 14 years ago

   I know one specific liberal historian who would argue so...
   
   The logical argument is no, but the historical argument is yes.
   
   Personally, I would like to see a Libertarian government and a large push for classical liberalism again.

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   Deidra26posted 14 years ago

   That is a very good question. It would be rather difficult to make an accurate answer to a hypothetical question or make a generalized statement based on a few bad apples. Having said that, the examples left by the last few, recently George H. W. Bush, one might be tempted to say yes!
   
   The truth is i am uncertain what exactly the conservative movement stands for. For years they have been in power and have neglected the healthcare issue, bad judgment on the Iraqi war, the gap between the rich and the poor have expanded etc. Also, i hear criticisms but not alot of solutions being offered in how they can and would do things differently to assist with unemployment and the broader economy. I will not say i agree with everything the current President is doing, but at least he's trying to do something.
   
   One of the founding principles of the conservative movement is "constant tax cuts"- it sounds good and is an excellent sound bite until you start to dig deeper. If you constantly give tax cuts how is it that you will cover anything? - wars; the military; public services such as when natural disasters take place and the government must step in...
   
   I am a little dumbstruck about the issues with government because you (that is, conservatives) do not like the government, but then you are still running to be a part of the government; i brought up that point because from my little reading on conservatives- they do not believe in regulation and prefer a free market system. But as you saw recently what happened when you leave humans- greedy ones anyway, to go unregulated! Enough is never enough so you do need some monitoring to ensure that those at the top are not destroying the fabric of the very system that got them there in the first place!
   
   The problems that this country face are "decades in the making", therefore, they will not be resolved quickly. Give the President some time and if things do not start to look up in a year and half from now- there is an election in 2012. I must say though if you look at the stock market  a year ago to now things are slowly getting better. Ofcourse, one cannot say that to those who are unemployed and struggling, but better will come- this country is one of the best in the world, it is resilient and the best days are yet to come...

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   GNelsonposted 14 years ago

   They got us here and they sure don't don't know how to get us out.  So my answer is yes they would.

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   G.L.A.posted 14 years ago

   'BACK' into a recession???  It's over?!  for who? certainly not me, or anyone else I know!

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   seanorjohnposted 14 years ago

   Fair point GLA. I agree we are still in a recession but made the assumption that we were heading out of a recession.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research last week claimed the recession was over. However the CBI stated last week "the harshest period of the recession looks to be behind us" and forecasts only modest growth in the first 3 months of 2010. So yes they say we are still in recesssion. Nevertheless the majority of economists see the uk as slowly moving out of recession and believe the economic policies taken by Labour are the correct ones.
   Hope this makes more sense.

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   shazz01109posted 14 years ago

   It really depends upon what you mean by conservative.  Do you mean a fiscally conservative government?  We got into the mess in large part by too much spending!  You can't cut taxes, without also cutting spending.  And to those who don't have jobs now, the recession is alive and strong...

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   JON EWALLposted 14 years ago

   Deidra26
   May i comment on your hub since you mentioned George Bush and tax cuts, the wars and giving president Obama time to get things straightened out.
   George bush inherited a Clinton recession,shortly there after the 9/11 disaster,fighting the war on terror and a falling economy .
   Never once did  he complain about the Clinton administration.
   Bush with a republican congress passed tax cuts across the board,that act increased employment,and had record money going into the treasury.When the republicans were in charge (up to 2006)unemployment was 4.6%.In 2007 the democrats took majority control of our government.For the last two years of the Bush administration controlled by the democrats, our economy went in the dumps.unemployment in 2008 was close to 7%.
   The problems with the Obama administration and congress is that they have borrowed billions of dollars with a promise that unemployment would not exceed 8%.UNEMPLOYMENT has exceeded 10%,the tarp funding $787 billion had another $85 billion added to the original bill.The national debt is 3 times more than what bush had.
   The people have told congress to stop spending ,stop wasting taxpayer money,and concentrate on getting our people back to work.
   If the people aren't working, there will  be no money coming into the treasury for government to operate If business don't make profit there will be no money coming into the treasury.If businesses are taxed higher, they will not expand and hire more people.
   The president wants to tax the rich (many are small businesses ),tax the banks and raise taxes .
   On many occasions reports coming out of the white house have been exposed as not being accurate and misleading.
   The major news medias are not reporting all the news that the people should have to make a reasonable opinion of our government.
   Where ever you have been getting information regarding the political situation in our government needs to be investigated further.
   Fox News and C-Span will give you the whole picture without editing.

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   Evan G Rogersposted 13 years ago

   yes. easily.
   
   In 100% reality, the government -- especially the president -- isn't in charge of the economy. If this were true, then we'd have a dictatorship. For some god awful reason everyone thinks that the president has to save us all from "the recession!!!" This seems to have been started during the Great Depression, when --for the first time in US history -- the president took an active role (he even usurped Constitutional Power from the judicial and legislative branches) in "aiding" the economy.
   
   In complete reality he was just horrendously making things worse: people were starving, and he was ordering the burning of crops and the slaughter of animals; people needed sound money, and he outlawed the ownership of gold (yes, really, he did); people needed stable banks, and he made it easier for banks to default. The first economic recession that the president was overly active in was also the worst economic recession in history -- there seems to be a connection!!!
   
   The complete truth is that, if you want to have a stronger economy, you have to get rid of governmental intervention. The simple fact that you're asking this question shows how much trouble we're in.
   
   President Bush was "a conservative"... BOOM= the dot.com bust.
   
   President Obama is not "a conservative" and the glut continues.
   
   The way to solve the problem is to get rid of Keynesian economic thought: it was DOA, but everyone still teaches it at school beacue it encourages government spending (and government officials need the spending to say "I created 1,000 jobs with my anti-recession programs!!!" in order to get re-elected.)
   
   Read Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" (you'll have it done in a week, even if you're lazy at reading it and even if you don't understand economics at all), then realize that every single job that the government "creates" comes at the expense of more than one job you never saw and can not see.
   
   Quick comments on other posts:
   
   Deidra26 seems to think that military interventions and the such are necessary things for governments to do. This is nonsense. Every single service that the government provides could easily be done - more efficiently - by the private sector.... and it'd be Constitutional to boot!
   
   Deidra26 also claims that greed left unregulated will lead to catastrophe, and only government can step in and stop it. Give. Me. A. Break. If you think the politicians aren't greedy, then just ask Blagojevich. If you were to notice how just about all the problems with the market are started, you'll find the treacherous hand of government: giving out monopolies and many other bonuses.
   
   Deidre26 also thinks things are getting better. They aren't. Interest rates have been artificially set to 0% for about a decade ... this is going to end horribly.
   
   Jon Ewall, for whatever reason, seems to think that Oil-Rig tycoons running the government will give us a benefit to the economy. This is nonsense. They got into government to line their own pockets: why else would they take a horrendous paycut? (The prez gets $400,000/year, CEOs make billions... ... but the prez is in charge of legislation, the military, and letting people off the hook.). Quit relying on government to fix economic issues, and start realizing that government-  any government - is the problem.

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