How fucked are we? US ranks 190th in Current Account Balance

We aren't just ranked last, but we are about 10x worse than the second to last. This is like the disparity between Zimbabwe and North Korea on the list of the most economically free countries.

You ever hear of free talk live? It's a sometimes entertaining radio show that's mostly about small government/no government guys trolling everyone else. But they do occasionally bring up a lot of interesting news especially in regards to how bad the government is doing. I usually listen to their show about once a week on podcast while I'm cleaning as it's usually the only time I wouldn't rather be doing something else but if you want some background noise check them out.

Free Talk Live | Talk Radio You Control

Discovered FTL a few months ago. I turn it on a lot of nights while I go to sleep. Weird, I know, but it is interesting to get their mostly libertarian perspective on our current state of being.
 


I don't smoke pot and I don't care too but if pot were legalized, handled, and taxed by the government we'd be out of debt in no time. The only downside is, and say what you will, pot will screw with a persons productivity. I've seen it with my own eyes. There would have to be laws put into place. Like only in your home, or something.

If we did this many countries would follow, I believe, and it could be the next big export for us as well.
 
I don't smoke pot and I don't care too but if pot were legalized, handled, and taxed by the government we'd be out of debt in no time. The only downside is, and say what you will, pot will screw with a persons productivity. I've seen it with my own eyes. There would have to be laws put into place. Like only in your home, or something.

If we did this many countries would follow, I believe, and it could be the next big export for us as well.

It would be nice but they wont do it. Arresting people with little baggies of vegetation in their pockets probably constitutes about 75% of the drug war. They wouldn't be able to justify the costs, plus they make a profit from tax payers by having more people in jail. So even if they scaled back the drug war and tried to make a profit from taxing marijuana it would probably be less than they get from prosecuting it. :stonedsmilie:
 
So if China has it's way and it's currency becomes the world reserve currency..

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I can stand on any street corner in these great united states and scream "I hate the fucking government"

Lets see you do that in some of the "better off" countries.
God Bless America... Let Freedom Ring!

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lmao... it's just a matter of time before yelling "fuck the gov't" get's you labeled as a terrorist, ever hear of the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act?

Land of the free..? O RLY?
 
I can stand on any street corner in these great united states and scream "I hate the fucking government"

Lets see you do that in some of the "better off" countries.
God Bless America... Let Freedom Ring!

Serious?

People get arrested here for less things than that... In fact, of all the westernized countries, you will be hard pressed to find a less "free" country than the US when it comes to freedom of speech. In most other western countries you can run into the street and say what the hell you want about the government, heads of state, whatever without anyone doing anything. ;)

The US is great in many ways, but really "free" in terms of freedom of speech it ain't.
 
It would be nice but they wont do it. Arresting people with little baggies of vegetation in their pockets probably constitutes about 75% of the drug war. They wouldn't be able to justify the costs, plus they make a profit from tax payers by having more people in jail. So even if they scaled back the drug war and tried to make a profit from taxing marijuana it would probably be less than they get from prosecuting it. :stonedsmilie:

On the national level, a Harvard economist has estimated that legalizing pot could save the government $13 billion annually in prohibition costs (including cops and prisons) and raise $7 billion in annual revenues if marijuana is taxed...
- Rolling Stone
 
What would be the additional societal cost for driving while stoned, extra hospitalization, etc - same societal and social cost categories as alcohol - what would it add up to for these additional legalized drugs?
 
What would be the additional societal cost for driving while stoned, extra hospitalization, etc - same societal and social cost categories as alcohol - what would it add up to for these additional legalized drugs?

Why would you be hospitalized for smoking weed? For having a panic attack?

Driving while stoned is no different than driving without your glasses/contacts or driving while your tired. You're driving while in a different mental/physical state and there could be consequences.
 
Right. There are societal costs. Just as with Alcohol. In previous post there were gross $$$ benefits listed I simply wanted to know if anyone had the stats on costs. Maybe we could allocate the same societal cost as alcohol to the analysis?
 
"On the national level, a Harvard economist has estimated that legalizing pot could save the government $13 billion annually in prohibition costs (including cops and prisons) and raise $7 billion in annual revenues if marijuana is taxed..."

That's some good news for the prospect of federal legalization. Won't save the government from it's spending problem though. I was looking at the federal budget and I believe the department of interior had a 12 billion dollar budget, which was the smallest one I saw. The biggest was defense standing at about 550 billion, the next biggest was still less than 20% of the defense budget.

You sure we can't close any overseas military bases, not even like one or two?