Why doesn't the government print enough money for everyone?

Yep that would be a dream come true but afraid it's not that simple - our 'real money' isn't like Monopoly money and we can't just print it off at will (I think we have to have gold to back it). I think if the politicians took pay cuts, everyone stopped wasting things, and we stopped sending so much of our money to other countries (BUY AMERICAN) we wouldn't be in such a financial mess.

My friends and I have discussed this subject a million times. You're asking a great question. Why can't we make enough money for everyone? I am tired of seeing the 'Save the Children' commercials for other countries when obviously we are too poor of a country to help ourselves. Why do we have children sleeping on the streets?? Going to school hungry and dirty? I don't understand. I used to live in Reno and downtown was always littered with people sleeping in the alley, by the river, or standing outside stores and casinos begging. Why? I thought this was a rich country. We should be an equal country. The mint should get on that. Who wrote the rules on the presses? Why can't we make money to help people less fortunate? If you walked up to a homeless person and handed them $50,000 what do you think they would do? I know what I'd do and I'm not homeless, but I'm not well off either. The government should give everyone $100,000 and call it a day. They could even charge us for the paper they use. They could also make the rich pay more tax while the majority of the people pay less. Then they would be taxing the people who won't be affected by it.

So, you are talking of about making money worthless. Have you ever wondered why there is so much Confederate money? Because they just kept printing it. It had no assets behind the paper making it worth anything, causing out of control inflation. Paper money is more than what we think it is, its also what assets exist that back it up. Really, what the dollar is is what OTHER countries think of it. Do they think that if they give us those paper dollars back, they can get the amount of gold/silver its worth? If we just printed all we need, then it isn't worth the paper its printed on.

Why doesn't the government print enough money for everyone?? This statement is somewhat similar to 'Why is the sky not raining 100 hundred dollars notes?' The mission of the local government is to manage the country well and they cannot satisfy each and everyone's desire though money is concerned. There is a quote which I like to share with everyone: 'Every family has its own difficulties' Government is like the head of the family and he has to provide her citizens with jobs, welfare and therefore, as time passes, problems and difficulties will appear. Imagine yourself as the head of the family, you have to provide a better living quality for your members and your members starts to request for more money to buy entertainment, games and etc. Will you able to give them the luxury of life if you are in debts and when your expenses are high?

Problem is, it is the Governments money to print. I don't remember all the details, but if you really want to know, I posted this last week. It is a long video, about 50 minutes and if you can get past the preachy part, I think this guy is somewhat on track of why we have the national debt and may never get out. http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1409833.aspx

Printing money will of course just make everything more expensive - basically cause hyperinflation lok at Zimbabwee and Germany before WWII A counrty gets out of debt basically by trading more, and in particular getting people to buy more of their products. Although I can't thin kof one country that isn't in debt to someone else

I think printing more money make the situation more worse.It will only generate lazy people.All the problems now we are facing is due to globalisation.YOU can see poverty world wide and it is not a problem of individual country.Now the wealth is concentrated among only few people.

because the money has to be backed up by something to show that it is good otherwise it is just a piece of paper. It is very complicated, and all goverments have to have strict control on how much money they print because if they are not good for it as a country the country's economy will fall. look at pesos they are not worth anything,

Because just printing money makes it worthless. It is not an easy concept to explain. I remember it being cover in I think it was an economics class in college. Do you remember when the dollar used to say 'silver certificate', that is because back then the each and every dollar printed was backed up with silver in a vault, I think it was in Fort Knox (please everyone feel free to correct me on these facts). May I recommend going to your local community college and taking an eco 101 course for a better understanding of it...then you can post it here for me to review.

lol i have wondered this so many times and asked my hubby this. he said it would just make things worse. i did understand some of why he said but there has to be a way some how. i don't want a lot i just want to go food shopping and not worry and beable to get what we need to live. i just want to be comfortable not rich. someday maybe i might hit it big and beable to live comfy for the rest of my life. haha

That would drive up inflation. You wouldn't want to bring bags of cash just to pay for a load of bread. Governments sink heavily into debt because of the lack of financial discipline. They should only borrow what they can pay. The problem is they rely too much on loans to finance projects. The financial institutions love it because ultimately they're the ones to benefit from all the interest payments. It's really up to the government officials not to be outsmarted by those financial institutions. They simply need to find other ways of generating cash rather than borrowing all the time or raising taxes all the time. That's just a silly way to run a government.

I think you should be in government.All the problems in the economy will just vanish.But in real sense there is a limit to the number of currency a country can produce & that is dependent on the reserves & assets the country has i guess.

I think I heard somewhere that paper money is a representation of gold the national bank has or something like that? That would be nice though to print more money, but I don't think that is going to be done.

inflation is a reason and if this happens the value of the money will become something like a tissue paper i wonder if you will like it like that there are other ways to deal with these issues

they will use only for thier fancy life, specially who's in the good chair, hungry people is anywhere, homeless, even those people who need help they will just being ignore, but in the time of election they look like a dog whose waving to those people is sick just for thier both.but in the end sorry i dont even knowthem or you that will be in our goverment.

stephcjh Did you ever stop to wonder who the government is in debt to??? How and/or why? It's not the USA Government that prints money. The money is printed by the private investors/owners of the Federal Reserve Banks. And they are allowed to do this without any gold backing. This money is then loaned to the USA government, this is where our debt comes from. The government borrows from the Federal Reserve Banks and has to pay it back plus an interest. Just like you do with a credit card.(which they also control) If the government could print money there wouldn't be any debt. When you pay taxes the Federal Reserve Banks is where your money goes, NOT to your government,like everyone thinks. Learn who really runs (owns) this country....It may surprise you! We have no control over these investors/owners and there is no way we will ever pay off this debt. President Andrew Jackson fought against the banks and President Woodrow Wilson favored them when he took office. President Kennedy was carrying out plan to stop borrowing from the Federal Reserve Banks and to make our own money just before he was assassinated.

Alright I was going to make more of a "dry" response but just hear me out. Your idea is heartfelt and its understandable where you are coming from. Yes there are homeless, yes there are poor, and definitely yes government raises taxes (they have to keep those low quality programs going somehow eh -_-). Anyways, printing off more money does decrease its value, since there is much more of it out and available in the market and in the hands of others WITHOUT earning or market exchange of any kind. Of course debts and poorer turns in the economy (lend craze) can lead to devaluing as well as we are witnessing with the US dollar/economy currently. In the case of an increase of monetary supply without earning or market influence, the market responds by increasing the price of items to suit this change: examples could be found in history and more recent times, Brazil for one example and 18th Century France for another. Along with the printing of more money in tremendous amounts, there is no guarantee that wages/income will rise along with this. With monetary value decreasing and a lack of working wage increases: the plan to print more money for everyone has a Pyhrric effect (earnings stay the same, but the value of the dollar is lower and the value of ALL goods rise). Also note that various taxes drive up the cost of many items in everyday life: some are very direct on the product, others are passed on to the consumer(this addresses the tax part of your discussion but also the main hypothetical being discussed). Basically, this item can make matters even worse (taxes that are harder to pay because of a devalued currency, and/or taxes that are increased as a result of a devalued currency).

Hello Steph, I was also wondering about it. I am not from USA but I can relate to it and would like to participate in your discussion. Our country has a very big debt to other countries and with the interest every year it keeps on increasing even the government is paying it. It makes our monthly bills increase because there are other charges that is for the debt of the country to other countries. That is why it came to my mind why not produce a lot of money. Many said it is not permitted and it got me confuse as no valid reason or proper explanation as to why it has to be like that until I reach college and in our economics class.My teacher said that money supply could only increase if the amount of gold increases or its price goes up. My teacher said our country could have been a rich country because there are lots of gold here, but then because it was not properly handled and with the corrupt government officials who hid those bullions of gold in other countries for their own interest, money supply cannot increase.

I think the reason you country is in soo much debt it because you had to much money. money was to easy to get through loans etc.Its also why the dollar is weak. If there is a lot of dollars the price of that dollar to other curriencs will fall.

You have a beautiful idea there, with an unrealistic concept...Printing money would cause inflation, and de-value our dollar so the outcome would still be the same. We'd still be in debt, and there would still be problems in our coutry. If it were that easy there wouldn't be any problems money-wise anywhere in the world.