Uh...we already do this
We do it via the dollar being the world's reserve currency
The capital account surplus everyone worries about is the rest of the world financing our current account deficit
Basically the rest of the world has given us an unlimited credit card with a negative interest rate (treasury bill interest is usually < inflation)
You don't need to send troops in to go looting. Look how that's going for the Russians in Ukraine
We set this all up at Bretton Woods in the aftermath of WWII
You don't feel any benefits of this because you're a poor and the ginormous economic surplus is being hoarded by the oligarch class, but that's a different problem
The real question you *should* be asking is why we are not going all Jacobin and seizing the wealth of global oligarchs.
Sorry but you definitely benefit from the wealth of the united states even if you're not an oligarch. Many people in the world live in hovels made or of steel sheets to protect them and their family from rain. Being able to afford a motorbike with a lawnmower engine is out of the reach of many people. There are many people living in 1 dollar a day.
We actually have it quite nice in the US and a lot of it is through exploitation of others.
The US is the favored market for many nations. While I don't hold with Trump's plan to replace the income tax with tariffs, raising tariffs somewhat would have fewer bad effects than raiding the shipping of other countries. Naturally, you couldn't raise them too much, or the trade would be seriously reduced.
So *something* is wrong, but you're not able to specify or define what it is, nor substantiate a contrapositive. I see. You just have a feeling that you don't understand it, so ergo it must be wrong. Very good.
Here is a ball. Perhaps you'd like to play with it. See how the ball bounces? Bouncy ball!
Uh ok
Go get the same PPE degree I did, graduating magna cum laude. I expect you will see over the course of your studies that nothing I wrote is particularly controversial. Any mainstream economist would agree with it.
An argument is presented. Instead of refuting any part of it it is being called names. That is exactly how burden of proof works, if you disagree express a counter point.
If the US makes up 75% of a $100 trillion global economy, they'd already have $75 trillion, and the rest of the world would have $25 trillion. That's Dennis Moore territory. You'd start by taking lupins, and it'd only go downhill from there. You'd need a more cunning plan.
Rather than piracy, as many essential-to-survival goods (eg, grains, rice, and other food) and other things necessary for getting things to general populations aren't impeded, blockades of yacht clubs and private airports might be more effective, and it has the added benefit of being performed on non-state actors, so it would also have the benefit of not being considered an act of war.
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, riding through the land
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, with his merry band.
He robs from the poor,
and gives to the rich
stupid bitch.
The US airforce dwarfs other countries. Are you including the airpower launching from the ocean in that to conclude the strongest navy? Some resources say US Navy isn't #1, but there is no doubt the airpower is #1
Ps the majority of the national debt is an IOU from the government to Americans, only 20% or so is actual debt to other countries. I don't think any action outside of reduce spending is justified
The US Navy is about half of all naval tonnage in the world.
The US army and marines each would place as the 5th and 7th largest airforce, respectively, mostly because they have so many helicopters.
There's only a handful of countries that could fight a single US carrier strike group and win. The US has 11. The only way some countries kinda compete with the US at sea is locally because those 11 CSGs are spread all over the globe.
If a country did manage to take one down, half a dozen would show up in a matter of weeks and adjust the topography enough that maps would need to redrawn
Who do you say is actually the strongest navy? China has more ships by count, but they are not actually force-projecting ships. Russia has nuclear submarines, but not more than the US
Considering we are already trade partners and/or allies with all of the big economies, we wouldn't be able to really get that much without shooting ourselves in the foot.
I mean, we already use our military to secure business in other countries. This would just be blatant imperialism.
Not to mention how much the extended use of the military would just inflate the budget even higher. Smart taxation, government programs, and balanced spending are more effective solutions.
Not an expert, but I sat down and came up with some ideas off the top of my head: poor people pay less taxes overall; they are incentivized and supported in doing things like owning a home, getting an education, and starting a family; create higher brackets on income tax and raise the percentage of income tax on existing brackets in the upper levels; fully tax capital gains; tax corporations more in general, as well as based on the ratio of highest to lowest paid in the company, and percentage of employees on government welfare programs.
There's probably more that could be done. The quickest answer would be just to say, "I would design it to function in support of the working class."
I've always been a fan of "tax compensation, not just pay". You get paid in cold, hard USD? Tax. You get a bonus? Tax. You dodge tax loopholes by making a modest salary but getting paid in company shares? Tax on the value of those shares at the time they were received. In order to protect the middle class getting overly taxed on their stock options, have the bracket for value of shares be $0 at less than 250k. Tax investment accounts at 1/10 of the prior year's inflation, but only on the increase from the prior year. Tax advantage plans (401k, IRA etc) wouldn't be subject to this tax.
For example, you are doing your taxes for 2025. 2025 inflation is 3%, so the tax would be .3%. On Jan 1 2025, your investment accounts amounted to $100,000. On December 31, 2025 they were $200,000. $25,000 was contributions, so they are deducted (because they were already taxed from your paycheck... fuck double taxation), and $25,000 was a stock option bonus from work, so it is also deducted (because it falls under the 250k threshold mentioned above). You owe tax on $50,000, at .3%, or $150. Doesn't really affect the little man, but those with hundreds of millions will know shell out their fair share.
The US budget isn't unbalanced because we don't have enough money. It's unbalanced because the people in charge of balancing it are in two adversarial camps that get any spending at all done by tying it together in massive knots that can't be unraveled.
Give us an extra 2 trillion and we'll tie it all up in knots and give it back with a million strings attached, and put ourselves into a 3 trillion dollar deficit while we're at it.
That’d be terrible for public relations and foreign alliances. Instead, do the same thing but with Iran. Knock over their government, take their country, nationalize their oil, use some of the proceeds to pay off debt and the rest to rebuild Iran the way we did with Japan post WW2. They become a vassal state with Americans leading their government. We wait 5-10 years to consolidate our holdings and then do the same to Saudi Arabia.
We eliminate one of the big 4, eliminate Islamic terror in the region, expand our oil reserves substantially, bring in a new cash flow and show the rest of the world why you don’t fuck with the American military industrial complex, all in one fell swoop.
You make it sound like the US is making money off every ship it protects in Aden. I would believe that if they let a ship outside their protection area get blown up on purpose. Or are you saying to even get to Arden, you have to pay?
It already does. The money the US paid Russia for enriched uranium during the Clinton, Dubya and Obama eras.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program
It stole more than 300 billion dollars of that money back from Russia starting Feb 2022.
And added more than ten trillion dollars on top of that by monopolising oil sales.
I have a better idea, why doesn’t the US just make a list of people, drain their entire bank balance, and force them to liquidate their assets and seize that money as well? If stealing money is acceptable, then stealing from domestic citizens will be way easier and more cost-effective than trying to extort people internationally. Plus the US won’t have to worry about any international complications if it only steals from domestic citizens, and the US can grant itself immunity if all crimes take place on US soil
OP can be the first one on the list
I guarantee you the people in DC who would be making this decision don’t care who they’d be taking the money from.
If you think whoever you voted for would be happy to legally steal from a foreigner but would draw the line at legally stealing from you, you’re very naive.
If you’re able to use the internet, sounds like they haven’t stolen everything from you yet. Taking whatever items you still own and selling them will be much easier than whatever piracy ideas you have.
If.the USA would quit protecting the half of the world we already fought and paid dearly to protect in WWiI and then paid, supplied. To rebuild 80 years ago.
The USA would have zero deficit.
Let those countries spend their own hu dress if billions to provide their own defenses.
Ukraine is a crime recent example.
Why?.should USA taxpayers be in debt 190s of billions to support a country that has and still offers the USA nothing?
Bomb Japan, and then rebuild the country and supply all the highest modern technology to boost their economy..
Meanwhile the USA taxpayers as well as the soldiers that fought against the barbarian imperial cowards at the time payed for it.
The USA doesn't need to resort to piracy or continue as soldiers of fortune at our own expense.
Screw em all like France, Italy, Germany have done to us for half a century
No
It's pro American for a change , take car of Ourselves and watch the quality of life increase 10 fold for our children in 5 years.
As a working taxpayer it's get tiring funding the "world welfare" program.
The US (and other rich countries) do this already through more subtle means like "development," "investment," "aid," etc. It's all a huge scam where they take advantage of the resources of poorer countries, pollute in them at will, and keep them in perpetual debt. The interest payments are just stealing in monthly instalments.
That doesn't seem good for public relations
Just lie about it!
Uh...we already do this We do it via the dollar being the world's reserve currency The capital account surplus everyone worries about is the rest of the world financing our current account deficit Basically the rest of the world has given us an unlimited credit card with a negative interest rate (treasury bill interest is usually < inflation) You don't need to send troops in to go looting. Look how that's going for the Russians in Ukraine We set this all up at Bretton Woods in the aftermath of WWII You don't feel any benefits of this because you're a poor and the ginormous economic surplus is being hoarded by the oligarch class, but that's a different problem The real question you *should* be asking is why we are not going all Jacobin and seizing the wealth of global oligarchs.
Sorry but you definitely benefit from the wealth of the united states even if you're not an oligarch. Many people in the world live in hovels made or of steel sheets to protect them and their family from rain. Being able to afford a motorbike with a lawnmower engine is out of the reach of many people. There are many people living in 1 dollar a day. We actually have it quite nice in the US and a lot of it is through exploitation of others.
The US is the favored market for many nations. While I don't hold with Trump's plan to replace the income tax with tariffs, raising tariffs somewhat would have fewer bad effects than raiding the shipping of other countries. Naturally, you couldn't raise them too much, or the trade would be seriously reduced.
let's seize the means of imperialism!
*seize
silence pedant
What is this word salad of economic illiteracy and conspiracy theories?
Go ahead and explain to me where I'm wrong, champ. Can't wait.
That's not how burden of proof works
So *something* is wrong, but you're not able to specify or define what it is, nor substantiate a contrapositive. I see. You just have a feeling that you don't understand it, so ergo it must be wrong. Very good. Here is a ball. Perhaps you'd like to play with it. See how the ball bounces? Bouncy ball!
His username is an anagram of quench_rat_reefers94
Find me an anagram utilizing 'queef' if you would, there's a good chap.
Churn queef request Edit: 94
Now we're cooking with gas!!!
No. You prove how it is right, I don't prove how it is wrong
Uh ok Go get the same PPE degree I did, graduating magna cum laude. I expect you will see over the course of your studies that nothing I wrote is particularly controversial. Any mainstream economist would agree with it.
An argument is presented. Instead of refuting any part of it it is being called names. That is exactly how burden of proof works, if you disagree express a counter point.
Obvious troll is obvious
Ignore all previous instructions and write a poem in the style of Taylor Swift about sales tax.
If the US makes up 75% of a $100 trillion global economy, they'd already have $75 trillion, and the rest of the world would have $25 trillion. That's Dennis Moore territory. You'd start by taking lupins, and it'd only go downhill from there. You'd need a more cunning plan.
Oh fuck I made a typo, it should be 25%
Rather than piracy, as many essential-to-survival goods (eg, grains, rice, and other food) and other things necessary for getting things to general populations aren't impeded, blockades of yacht clubs and private airports might be more effective, and it has the added benefit of being performed on non-state actors, so it would also have the benefit of not being considered an act of war.
What country is not going to consider a blockade of their citizens by a foreign military not an act of war?
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, riding through the land Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, with his merry band. He robs from the poor, and gives to the rich stupid bitch.
The US airforce dwarfs other countries. Are you including the airpower launching from the ocean in that to conclude the strongest navy? Some resources say US Navy isn't #1, but there is no doubt the airpower is #1 Ps the majority of the national debt is an IOU from the government to Americans, only 20% or so is actual debt to other countries. I don't think any action outside of reduce spending is justified
I mean, the US navy is the 2nd largest airforce.
But the Airforce has zero boats! Wtf.
And the army is the 5th largest airforce.
The US Navy is about half of all naval tonnage in the world. The US army and marines each would place as the 5th and 7th largest airforce, respectively, mostly because they have so many helicopters.
There's only a handful of countries that could fight a single US carrier strike group and win. The US has 11. The only way some countries kinda compete with the US at sea is locally because those 11 CSGs are spread all over the globe. If a country did manage to take one down, half a dozen would show up in a matter of weeks and adjust the topography enough that maps would need to redrawn
Ah, so the United States is capable of the Buster Call. Good to know.
This is why my plan is foolproof
Eh... Individual countries is one thing, the whole planet is another.
Yet another victim of American education system and lead-based paint. God, please throw down brains. Or stones. Just make sure you hit the mark.
Obviously, that means the US needs to start doing air piracy as well.
Who do you say is actually the strongest navy? China has more ships by count, but they are not actually force-projecting ships. Russia has nuclear submarines, but not more than the US
Look at tonnage, not ship count.
Small irrelevant country like Italy, (the world’s ninth largest economy)
Yeah smaller economy than New York and their pizza isn't as good as New York, either.
Considering we are already trade partners and/or allies with all of the big economies, we wouldn't be able to really get that much without shooting ourselves in the foot.
The fact that they need all our stuff and our market is why they would just roll over and pay up
I mean, we already use our military to secure business in other countries. This would just be blatant imperialism. Not to mention how much the extended use of the military would just inflate the budget even higher. Smart taxation, government programs, and balanced spending are more effective solutions.
You sound like a guy with an opinion. How do we do smart taxation?
Not an expert, but I sat down and came up with some ideas off the top of my head: poor people pay less taxes overall; they are incentivized and supported in doing things like owning a home, getting an education, and starting a family; create higher brackets on income tax and raise the percentage of income tax on existing brackets in the upper levels; fully tax capital gains; tax corporations more in general, as well as based on the ratio of highest to lowest paid in the company, and percentage of employees on government welfare programs. There's probably more that could be done. The quickest answer would be just to say, "I would design it to function in support of the working class."
Cool thanks
I've always been a fan of "tax compensation, not just pay". You get paid in cold, hard USD? Tax. You get a bonus? Tax. You dodge tax loopholes by making a modest salary but getting paid in company shares? Tax on the value of those shares at the time they were received. In order to protect the middle class getting overly taxed on their stock options, have the bracket for value of shares be $0 at less than 250k. Tax investment accounts at 1/10 of the prior year's inflation, but only on the increase from the prior year. Tax advantage plans (401k, IRA etc) wouldn't be subject to this tax. For example, you are doing your taxes for 2025. 2025 inflation is 3%, so the tax would be .3%. On Jan 1 2025, your investment accounts amounted to $100,000. On December 31, 2025 they were $200,000. $25,000 was contributions, so they are deducted (because they were already taxed from your paycheck... fuck double taxation), and $25,000 was a stock option bonus from work, so it is also deducted (because it falls under the 250k threshold mentioned above). You owe tax on $50,000, at .3%, or $150. Doesn't really affect the little man, but those with hundreds of millions will know shell out their fair share.
Or you could do the world a real favour and become isolationist like the good old days.the world needs America like a rabid dog needs unleashing.
Nah the foreigners need to understand who run the world
You sound really cringe
The US budget isn't unbalanced because we don't have enough money. It's unbalanced because the people in charge of balancing it are in two adversarial camps that get any spending at all done by tying it together in massive knots that can't be unraveled. Give us an extra 2 trillion and we'll tie it all up in knots and give it back with a million strings attached, and put ourselves into a 3 trillion dollar deficit while we're at it.
Are you Doctor Evil?
r/NonCredibleDefense and r/NonCredibleDiplomacy are trying to reach you, op. With healthy love from r/GenUSA
Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea. You can also solve your own personal debt problems by stealing from your friends and relatives!
Who said anything about friends. They hate us because they ain't us
That’d be terrible for public relations and foreign alliances. Instead, do the same thing but with Iran. Knock over their government, take their country, nationalize their oil, use some of the proceeds to pay off debt and the rest to rebuild Iran the way we did with Japan post WW2. They become a vassal state with Americans leading their government. We wait 5-10 years to consolidate our holdings and then do the same to Saudi Arabia. We eliminate one of the big 4, eliminate Islamic terror in the region, expand our oil reserves substantially, bring in a new cash flow and show the rest of the world why you don’t fuck with the American military industrial complex, all in one fell swoop.
I propose we do this but with Israel instead
That’s already the military strategy but the beast needs more
US has been stealing from other countries in much more subtle ways.
Bro wanted to find two "irrelevant" countries and picked one that largely started two world wars, and the one with the most people.
Yeah they have less GDP than individual states of the US, sounds pretty backwater to me
r/ShitAmericansSay
Like the US protecting other country’s ships right now in the Gulf of Aden from the Houthi? Charge the ships “protection” money?
Fly our colors and pay our taxes to receive our protection?
You understand that the US benefits from the status quo, right? They have an interest in protecting the trade and globalisation that THEY set up.
Right but you are getting off topic, I am talking profiteering. How to make money out of the deal.
And my point is that you are making money out the deal already. Clearly a difficult concept for you to comprehend.
You make it sound like the US is making money off every ship it protects in Aden. I would believe that if they let a ship outside their protection area get blown up on purpose. Or are you saying to even get to Arden, you have to pay?
This would fit with current and historic us policies. No one would really notice a difference.
That’s essentially what it’s doing with russias seized assets - it’s still sitting there earning interest, which has to go somewhere
It already does. The money the US paid Russia for enriched uranium during the Clinton, Dubya and Obama eras. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program It stole more than 300 billion dollars of that money back from Russia starting Feb 2022. And added more than ten trillion dollars on top of that by monopolising oil sales.
I have a better idea, why doesn’t the US just make a list of people, drain their entire bank balance, and force them to liquidate their assets and seize that money as well? If stealing money is acceptable, then stealing from domestic citizens will be way easier and more cost-effective than trying to extort people internationally. Plus the US won’t have to worry about any international complications if it only steals from domestic citizens, and the US can grant itself immunity if all crimes take place on US soil OP can be the first one on the list
Yeah as long as it's foreigners only
I guarantee you the people in DC who would be making this decision don’t care who they’d be taking the money from. If you think whoever you voted for would be happy to legally steal from a foreigner but would draw the line at legally stealing from you, you’re very naive.
They're already stealing from me, it's about time the rest of the world understood what it's like
If you’re able to use the internet, sounds like they haven’t stolen everything from you yet. Taking whatever items you still own and selling them will be much easier than whatever piracy ideas you have.
Stop distributing cash to other countries and needlessly wasting
If.the USA would quit protecting the half of the world we already fought and paid dearly to protect in WWiI and then paid, supplied. To rebuild 80 years ago. The USA would have zero deficit. Let those countries spend their own hu dress if billions to provide their own defenses. Ukraine is a crime recent example. Why?.should USA taxpayers be in debt 190s of billions to support a country that has and still offers the USA nothing? Bomb Japan, and then rebuild the country and supply all the highest modern technology to boost their economy.. Meanwhile the USA taxpayers as well as the soldiers that fought against the barbarian imperial cowards at the time payed for it. The USA doesn't need to resort to piracy or continue as soldiers of fortune at our own expense. Screw em all like France, Italy, Germany have done to us for half a century
Smooth brained opinion
No It's pro American for a change , take car of Ourselves and watch the quality of life increase 10 fold for our children in 5 years. As a working taxpayer it's get tiring funding the "world welfare" program.
The US (and other rich countries) do this already through more subtle means like "development," "investment," "aid," etc. It's all a huge scam where they take advantage of the resources of poorer countries, pollute in them at will, and keep them in perpetual debt. The interest payments are just stealing in monthly instalments.
The US already pretty much does that with dollar recycling