[sunilch]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

A noob question, if it was that simple for the USofA to just print and pay off the debt (without much repercussions), why do they go to the trouble of issuing bonds instead?

There has to be a negative impact of printing & repaying debt on the US, especially on the value of the USD vis-a-vis other currencies and this has a direct impact on the inflation within the US as theirs is a consumption economy and almost everything is imported.

Issuing bonds as and when you want to is a nothing but printing money as per wish.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

There has to be a negative impact of printing & repaying debt on the US, especially on the value of the USD vis-a-vis other currencies and this has a direct impact on the inflation within the US as theirs is a consumption economy and almost everything is imported.

I have mentioned that such actions increase inflation in my previous post. Inflation is a serious political and economic repercussion even in US. Kamala apparently lost because Biden couldn't control inflation and Donald promised to.

A pollster’s top reasons Harris lost: Inflation, inflation, inflation
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ion-inflation/

The impact of inflation on the 2024 presidential election
https://hub.jhu.edu/2024/11/20/how-i...2024-election/

[Earthroamer]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

A noob question, if it was that simple for the USofA to just print and pay off the debt (without much repercussions), why do they go to the trouble of issuing bonds instead?

There has to be a negative impact of printing & repaying debt on the US, especially on the value of the USD vis-a-vis other currencies and this has a direct impact on the inflation within the US as theirs is a consumption economy and almost everything is imported.

It is as easy as you think it is. Many countries including India does it. Of course it has negative consequences (inflation, purchasing power of currency going down) more so for emerging currencies like INR. When doing QE, they keep interest rate low, to increase liquidation in the market, which is what The West was doing up until recently, since 2008 Financial Crisis. This is a100 year old debate between Monetarists and Kenyesian economists .

US can go relatively harmless while doing QE because massive backing of Petro Dollar, while this has very negative effects on the emerging market currencies like INR.

[Samurai]

I guess we all know how gig workers are exploited by delivery companies and aggregators like Swiggy, Uber, Ola, Zomato, etc.

Calling gig workers as partners is the biggest gaslighting phenomena in my opinion. When I employ people, I have to follow all the labour laws, provide all the perks employees are entitled to by law. But these aggregators avoid all that by calling them partners.

There is an effort going on to protect the rights of gig workers. The video is very long, but very interesting if you care about the topic.

https://youtu.be/2KaihgZrJdw

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I guess we all know how gig workers are exploited by delivery companies and aggregators like Swiggy, Uber, Ola, Zomato, etc.

Calling gig workers as partners is the biggest gaslighting phenomena in my opinion. When I employ people, I have to follow all the labour laws, provide all the perks employees are entitled to by law. But these aggregators avoid all that by calling them partners.

There is an effort going on to protect the rights of gig workers. The video is very long, but very interesting if you care about the topic.

https://Youtu.be/2KaihgZrJdw

But then what about the unorganized sector and the utilization of child labor, the structures upon which some part of our low-cost economy is standing. Arguably the "gig-partners" are in better condition compared to the erstwhile popular means of getting the dirty job done at least cost.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by alpha1

But then what about the unorganized sector and the utilization of child labor, the structures upon which some part of our low-cost economy is standing. Arguably the "gig-partners" are in better condition compared to the erstwhile popular means of getting the dirty job done at least cost.

Unorganized sector is a hard problem to solve, because it unorganized and scattered all around the country. There is no way to track it.

But gig-workers are the most tracked and most documented. That means they can be saved from being exploited, unlike the unorganized sector. It is a low hanging fruit.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Unorganized sector is a hard problem to solve, because it unorganized and scattered all around the country. There is no way to track it.

But gig-workers are the most tracked and most documented. That means they can be saved from being exploited, unlike the unorganized sector. It is a low hanging fruit.

Oh well, so you could be postulating that unionising the gig-workers will improve their conditions without any impact or "suffering" for the end consumers (who is paying for everything eventually). I wonder what the laissez-faire guys will say about meddling with market economics.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by alpha1

I wonder what the laissez-faire guys will say about meddling with market economics.

Laissez-faire and market economics do not take precedence over human beings. Otherwise we would still have legal slavery and bonded labour, seeing as they result in cheaper production costs.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Oh well, so you could be postulating that unionising the gig-workers will improve their conditions without any impact or "suffering" for the end consumers (who is paying for everything eventually).

Who said anything about Unionising?

Communists are very good at pointing out problems in capitalism, especially from the socio-economic point of view. After all, it was Karl Marx who wrote the greatest critique of capitalism. But his solution was communism, which killed few dozen millions in USSR, China, North Korea, Cambodia, etc in the 20th century.

So unions are not the answer according to me, at least not the Indian kind. Let the government make the rules to protect gig workers (who are well-tracked), and auditors can verify it is followed. For example, the moment a company has more than 10 employees, it must provide ESI, and must provide PF upon crossing 20. The auditors ensure companies follow these rules.

[Samurai]

On other news, there is a very surprising news from world bank regarding Gini coefficient, which is the index that measures income inequality.

Now India has the 4th best income equality in the world.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le69777979.ece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tyPxGkZ8GE

Of course, this news took most economists by surprise, even by shock.

Here is an expert review of the same: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-spe...equality-story

Same guy on video, explaining his disbelief, and how he double-checked all the primary sources to ensure it was not fake news.

https://youtu.be/R4m_-WvnVmg

[Gansan]

Already state governments are seeing gig workers as a vote bank. It will be election year in TN in 2026, and already the state govt has announced it will provide strategically located air conditioned rest rooms for them, where they can cool off briefly between their orders. This will slowly provide a means for them to take their grievances to the authorities. This will all be impromptu at the beginning, but the government can twist the arms of the start ups if they wish, at least for election publicity.

[sumeethaldankar]

I was just wondering is there something like defense bonds that one can buy to help strengthen the country's defenses? Ideally, the funds from such bonds would be used to acquire equipment that can be directly utilized to safeguard the nation.

I understand that these investments if we can call them that would likely offer low interest returns, but they could provide significant value to the defense sector. While taxes are meant to support such initiatives, they are often misused by corrupt politicians for personal gain.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I was just wondering is there something like defense bonds that one can buy to help strengthen the country's defenses? Ideally, the funds from such bonds would be used to acquire equipment that can be directly utilized to safeguard the nation..

The only advantage of doing something like this is raising funds at 4% pa instead of 7% pa (current cost of funds). The net savings to the Govt is negligible in real terms, but it will be a huge PR disaster.

Defense equipment acquisition and upgrades is never ending. I think Govt is focussing on developing a defense industry in India, rather than spending money and importing stuff. The reason for slow acquisition/upgrades is that it takes time to build that capability in different domains.