Once upon a time, conservatives insisted on prudent government, one that always maintained a surplus. Debt was anathema to them.
Fast forward to today’s more ideologically oriented conservatives and we find that national debt suits them just fine.
Anathema to them are social programs that they see as empowering governments to take their hard-earned money and give it to poorly motivated losers.
This attitude has been reinforced by the 2008 collapse of the financial market. They must have been surprised to find that we taxpayers would come to their rescue by backing them with large bailouts that put them back on their feet, even though that put us deeply in debt – the very kind of situation that would demand cuts to social services and thus squeeze people into jobs that pay ever lower wages.
Now that banks have become aware that we taxpayers will cover them even when they make really, really stupid mistakes, they see the virtue of keeping governments in the red. Wow, can it get any better than this?
So don’t expect national debt to go away any time soon, my friends.
Andy Mulcahy
Victoria
