When does "broke" mean "broke"? - Part 2: government finances

OK.

I have had several replies over the years on various boards starting: "the trouble with you liberals" ....

Invariably from Americans - "liberal" in the European sense is quite different, it advocates classic "liberalism", so most European Liberal parties (see the Netherlands, Germany etc) are actually ultra-conservative. Let business do what it wants and the poor can go hang usw.

Not where I am at all, as you might guess.

Anyway back to the American critics.

In their view the "liberals" want government spending tons of taxpayers' money on things that aren't needed, running up a massive amount of debt in the process. I will avoid the what the spending is on for a minute, and point out that the hardly liberal George W. Bush (he who must not be mentioned in the 2012 Republican Party Primaries) is apparently responsible for 42% of the American government debt, while supposed liberal Bill Clinton was running up surpluses during his tenure.

In other words, go check your facts first before opening your electronic mouth.

My view is what it has been for seemingly ever. Governments should not run up debt. Period!

Governments should take the money that they have and spend it wisely on those things that are considered important, and those things that the voters have asked of them in a democratic election - provided of course they were given an honest choice, and what they were told could be delivered, can be.

If the government cannot pay for the service it should not provide it, or it should levy the people for more money so that the service can be paid for. If that means raising taxes, so be it.

All people who wish to see their country prosper would, like good patriots, of course be willing to make the sacrifice. Wouldn't they? After all business owners you would expect to be good patriots and put their country ahead of their personal greed (sorry, I meant "needs"!), and contribute to the common good. Wouldn't they?

And closing tax loopholes and ensuring efficient collection of expected revenues - that goes with the job of the public servant, so you need reasonably well-paid, intelligent citizens to do that. Right?

And eventually when capitalism has the equivalent of the "Black Death", see 2008, you can always expect the government to help businesses just like the the businesses have contributed to them when it was necessary. Right?

Quite how a government can do this without getting heavily into the red is a good question. Killing off its old people (a mass cull of dependant people past their 60th birthday maybe? Particularly those whose assets became tainted during the capitalist "Black Death"!). Closing down all its schools? Most kids in the West hate school anyway, so why not create another Pakistan, where most kids cannot afford to go to traditional schools?

It is interesting to watch how some governments react though when they are "broke". The Thatcher government in 1982 was averse to spending large chunks of money to help industrial regeneration in the North of England and avoid in the process the degeneration of the lifestyle of millions of people, but was not averse to spending millions to maintain the livelihood of four to five thousand people in the distant Falkland Islands.

The current US Republican Party Primary candidates (excepting Ron Paul, who is nothing if not consistent) are shouting for massive cuts in public spending, but are still willing to spend billions in public money that they allegedly cannot afford on a war with Iran!

If you are "broke", you are "broke"? Well, not exactly - right?

The problem with politics is that it has become all about propaganda, not about the realities on the ground.

In my opinion, politicians should level with their people. They should stop making phoney promises and set about getting their debt piles down to zero as quickly as possible, while trying to offer their people the best standard of living available to them.

It needs sacrifices, it needs realistic solutions, and it needs honesty. The chance of getting those though in the current environment is as close to zero as it gets!