I just got out of my History class and just had to post this becuase my professor worded it perfectly in perl, although, it wasn't on purpose :). He said, in talking about the stock maket crash, that in deficit the way to spend money is to just print money and spend :), so of coarse I'm thinking : 
while($buget eq $deficit) {
  print $money;
  &spend();
  $money++;
}

[download]
It was such a poetic way of placing things :), hahahaha :).

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Government Spending
by zentara (Cardinal) on Mar 15, 2004 at 22:19 UTC
    How about: 
    require Government::Spending qw('coming_election');

our $economy = new Government::Spending;
$economy->init('trickle-down');

if($next_election eq 'republican_success'){
   $economy->stop('trickle-down');
   $economy->blame_democrats;
     }else{ $take_the_money_and_run =1;
            $economy->blame_democrats}

    [download]
    I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh
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Re: Government Spending
by hardburn (Abbot) on Mar 15, 2004 at 19:30 UTC

    ARRRGGG! This is one of my pet peeves. Governments don't just "print out" money whenever they need it. Just ask post-WWI Germany what happens when you do that. The monetary system is far more complex than that, and these days much of it (perhaps most) doesn't have a physical form, not even as an otherwise worthless scrap of paper or metal.

    ----
    : () { :|:& };:

    Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

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      I'm sorry :). I wasn't aware :), thank you for clearing that up for me :). My first thought was that it would most likely cause more problems than it would fix, but since I was not an expert in history or government, I was not able to correct him :). I'll keep that in mind for future use :).
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Re: Government Spending
by inman (Curate) on Mar 16, 2004 at 16:56 UTC
    The British take on things. 
    use The::People qw (OverEighteens);
require Political::Party qw (Conservative, Labour, Liberals);

our @electorate = The::People::OverEighteens;
our $government = new Labour;
our %services = qw (hospitals transport environment education);

my $treasury;

foreach my $taxpayer (@electorate)
{
    $treasury += $taxpayer->collect_taxes;
}

while (($treasury->solvent) && (! $government->end_of_term()))
{
    $treasury->spend (\%services);
}

$government->hold_election;
#Done

    [download]

    This code doesn't compile because there are large amounts of the 'goverment' object that are poorly implemented.

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Re: Government Spending
by jeffa (Bishop) on Mar 16, 2004 at 02:49 UTC 
    print $money;

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    Can i get that from the CPAN? Sure would be handy right before taxes ...

    jeffa

    L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)
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      It definately would be useful :), especially when I need the extra cash to replace my hard drive :).
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Re: Government Spending
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Mar 15, 2004 at 20:06 UTC
    I think $budget < 0 would be better. However, that strategy is a recipe for disaster. (Just the fact that there are still deficits in many countries' finances should be proof enough that it cannot work.)

    Makeshifts last the longest.

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      Having a deficit is useful because it can keep inflation down. Deficits at the federal level aren't a big deal, because the government can always take out a loan in the form of a Bond. As long as the government can keep paying the interest on them, it's OK. A US Savings Bond is the most secure investment in the world for the very good reason that the US has never defaulted on any of its loans.

      "Fixing the deficit problem" is something that sounds good during elections, but everyone in Washington knows that keeping it around is too useful to just throw it away even if they could.

      ----
      : () { :|:& };:

      Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

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