How to fix the economy

[NJ5]

TheRealMafoo said:

NJ5 said:
How to really fix the economy (if it's possible...):

1- Get rid of debt (i.e. stop doing what failed to work in Japan in the 90s, it's not gonna work now either).

2- Make people and governments focus on getting a good energy infrastructure in place, from production to consumption. The economy is not going to recover significantly with rising oil prices together with high oil dependency.

1. I agree, but how? I would say stop spending money we don't have. Cut 50% of all spending in government.

2. Sorry, but that's not logical. You say the economy is not going to recover because of rising oil prices, so your solution is to use energy that cost 20-30 times more. 

1- I was thinking about all kinds of debt, not just government debt. Default on the debt which doesn't have a chance to get paid and keep the rest (in other words, stop bailing out debtors).

2- I'm talking about medium/long term sustainability. The free market isn't efficient enough at getting rid of oil dependence quickly enough to mitigate the problems of peak oil. Have you read about the Hirsch Report? According to most projections (even those from optimistic sources), we're already too late to stave off the negative consequences of not dealing with this problem.