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July 12, 2010
The Case For Fiscal Restraint
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---- This one is by David Brooks, called A Little Economic Realism. He writes in part: These days, debt-fueled government spending doesn’t increase confidence. It destroys it. Only 6 percent of Americans believe the last stimulus created jobs, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey.
I was against the massive stimulus packages that the US government handed out, and I was even more against the Canadian government's bandwagon participation. But since that is all behind us now, the most I can hope is that future effort is concentrated on balancing budgets again, and getting back to the task that we had at hand only two short years ago - paying down our federal debt. I wonder how I'm going to explain this to my daughter. She's only 10, and she's already looking at the state of the environment, wondering things like "why do we drive cars that pollute so much?" and "why are so many things made to be disposable and not re-usable?" Good questions. I'm sure the economics questions are only a few years away. Posted by Hammer at July 12, 2010 02:49 PM |
I've commented a lot already on Canada's federal debt, and the fact that I think we should be trying to pay it down, but that doesn't seem to be the path that many of our "top economists" are suggesting we take. Some times I wonder if I'm in an absurdly small minority. However, once in a while I do stumble on an article or editorial that supports my idea of fiscal restraint and re-affirms my beliefs.If you enjoyed this article, you may want to read more in the Finance category.
Comments
Don't worry you're not alone, I've always considered the strategy of only spending what I can afford to be the most responsible. Except for very very few things (eg. a house) debt should not be used to make purchases. I wish we didn't even have to use debt for housing, but that's just not realistic these days.