Ron Paul Group

goldnoil

My first post here. I am an American living in Ireland for 10 years now and never thought I would get involved in an American political campaign again until I became aware of Ron Paul and his message of peace and economic renewal.

Now, I don't agree with Ron Paul on some of his positions but feel that he has the basic framework right for getting America's finances back on track.

I have been absolutely amazed at the development of his internet based grassroots movement the numbers of which, between Meetup Groups and facebook and such, must now be over 100,000.

Although I can't go out and canvas, I am doing my bit by sending out 120
letters to Iowa voters.

If any of you are also Ron Paul supporters, there is an Irish Ron Paul Meetup Group and their URL is http://ronpaul.meetup.com/515/

We are having our organising meeting this Saturday and the details can be found at

http://www.pressreleaseireland.com/2007/11/27/irish-ron-paul-group-organisational-meeting-announced/

cavedave

Ron Paul backs a return to the gold standard. Is it really a good idea to back all dollars with gold? Won't this lead to
1. A massive increase in the price of gold so that people cannot afford jewelery and they cannot afford to use gold in electronics and such.
2. Don't most non Austrian school economists (Mundell-Fleming model etc) think that tying a currency to gold is a deflationary risk during a recession?

I agree that allowing a government to print money to inflate there way out of debt is unwise but is a return to the gold standard a good idea?

goldnoil

cavedave wrote: »

Ron Paul backs a return to the gold standard. Is it really a good idea to back all dollars with gold? Won't this lead to
1. A massive increase in the price of gold so that people cannot afford jewelery and they cannot afford to use gold in electronics and such.
2. Don't most non Austrian school economists (Mundell-Fleming model etc) think that tying a currency to gold is a deflationary risk during a recession?

I agree that allowing a government to print money to inflate there way out of debt is unwise but is a return to the gold standard a good idea?

My take is that Dr. Paul supports the creation of a competing gold backed investment currency. I will try to find his quote and post it later when I have time.

I believe that there is a massive increase in the price of gold coming no anyhow as governments worldwide are furiously running the presses trying to overcome the derivatives mess.

I don't know about the model you refer to but I can understand the concept.

I don't agree with all of Ron's ideas but I have no doubt that if he gets elected he will do what he can to correct the financial mess that America finds itself in. Congress won't go along with everything of course. For example, I can't see the US getting along without a central bank but I can see significant changes made to its structure making it more responsive to
public needs. As a private organisation it has done very little policy wise that would have a negative impact on the bottom lines of the big banks - like using the policy tool of raising reserve requirements for example.

sovtek

goldnoil wrote: »

My first post here. I am an American living in Ireland for 10 years now and never thought I would get involved in an American political campaign again until I became aware of Ron Paul and his message of peace and economic renewal.

Now, I don't agree with Ron Paul on some of his positions but feel that he has the basic framework right for getting America's finances back on track.

I have been absolutely amazed at the development of his internet based grassroots movement the numbers of which, between Meetup Groups and facebook and such, must now be over 100,000.

Although I can't go out and canvas, I am doing my bit by sending out 120
letters to Iowa voters.

If any of you are also Ron Paul supporters, there is an Irish Ron Paul Meetup Group and their URL is http://ronpaul.meetup.com/515/

We are having our organising meeting this Saturday and the details can be found at

http://www.pressreleaseireland.com/2007/11/27/irish-ron-paul-group-organisational-meeting-announced/

I've been here about 8 years myself. I was not very potically active until moving here either.
I would vote for Ron Paul...although I thought that I would never vote for a Republican but he's for pulling out the troops immediately and against a bloated and omnipresent military. That would be enough to get my vote this time around.
I am more closely aligned with Kucinich though. However I don't think we are going to get the chance at voting for either. Both the Democrats and Republicans are trying to malign their candidates that seem to have the most integrity and are proposing what most Americans want.

goldnoil

sovtek wrote: »

I've been here about 8 years myself. I was not very potically active until moving here either.
I would vote for Ron Paul...although I thought that I would never vote for a Republican but he's for pulling out the troops immediately and against a bloated and omnipresent military. That would be enough to get my vote this time around.
I am more closely aligned with Kucinich though. However I don't think we are going to get the chance at voting for either. Both the Democrats and Republicans are trying to malign their candidates that seem to have the most integrity and are proposing what most Americans want.

Over time I have been on both sides of the fence electorally but found I often would need to hold my nose while voting. I was hopeful about Perot's chances until he quit.

America has been in the decline for a long time now overseen by both parties. I remember in the late 1980's that there was a factory dismantling company that went public - business was that good taking apart American factories and shipping them overseas.

We are approaching the end game now of the mess that has been created by the offshoring elites and if Ron Paul manages to get elected, his policies might soften the blow for the average person. The way it is going China and Russia are going to end up owning a good part of America using the capitalist system to defeat their adversary at their own game while largely maintaining their dictatorial and oligarchic systems.

I like Kucinich as well. He is a very principled man but I believe what the USA needs now is conservative fiscal policies rather than developing new programs which the country can ill afford.

Akrasia

goldnoil wrote: »

Over time I have been on both sides of the fence electorally but found I often would need to hold my nose while voting. I was hopeful about Perot's chances until he quit.

America has been in the decline for a long time now overseen by both parties. I remember in the late 1980's that there was a factory dismantling company that went public - business was that good taking apart American factories and shipping them overseas.

We are approaching the end game now of the mess that has been created by the offshoring elites and if Ron Paul manages to get elected, his policies might soften the blow for the average person. The way it is going China and Russia are going to end up owning a good part of America using the capitalist system to defeat their adversary at their own game while largely maintaining their dictatorial and oligarchic systems.

I like Kucinich as well. He is a very principled man but I believe what the USA needs now is conservative fiscal policies rather than developing new programs which the country can ill afford.

What america needs is someone who is going to reign back the rampant corporations and give thew resources back to the people. Ron paul is against social security, against public healthcare, against public education, against regulation of environmental standards (he wants the courts to be the mechanism for preventing pollution....)

His ultra free market ideology and opposition to regulation would make many of the crisis inflicting the U.S. and global economies much much worse. His social policies would leave millions with even worse health care, worse security and worse education. (he supports private education, even if its provided by cults, corporations and religious zealots, with no standards of content or context. Enter a world where creationism is taught as fact and history is whatever the prejudices of the teacher happen to be)

sovtek

goldnoil wrote: »

I like Kucinich as well. He is a very principled man but I believe what the USA needs now is conservative fiscal policies rather than developing new programs which the country can ill afford.

We can actually afford a lot. Dismantling the unnecessary and dangerous military would pay for just about everything in the budget at the moment. Cutting corporate welfare would also free up billions. That being said we aren't going to be able to vote for either one because both parties are as corrupt as the other.

settopbox

us military spending based on %of GDP is more or less in line with other countries.
also america is fighting a war on 2 fronts, dont see anyone else doing this bar UK

cavedave

A world map of spending
Since world war 2 the trend has been downward

And a Pie chart of Federal spending on the military

cavedave

Chomsky on Ron Paul

He makes interesting points that underlie the difference between a socialist (left) libertarian and a market forces (right) one.