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...pretty much 100%. Anyone who tries to promote Keynesian economics is laughed out of the room -- What? You want more stimulus money? We see it didn't work! And we have to deal with the debt!!! -- while those who promote "We can't live beyond our means! We need austerity and we need it now!" are given the floor and everyone, all the Serious People, agree with them.
No one EVER discusses the historical perspective on this. No one EVER discusses how austerity measures may be the exact wrong thing. No one EVER discusses Argentina and Iceland (it was Iceland, right?) -- in Argentina's case they defaulted, and came back strong very quickly; in Iceland's case they refused to make the banks whole and in fact threw some of the banksters in jail, and they're coming back strong too. Whereas economies who have adopted austerity measures see their economies slow down, therefore revenues stay down, therefore the economic situation fails to improve.
But we can't say anything that might imply it's okay not to pay the banksters. No siree. It's that "personal responsibility" thing writ large. Only no one ever holds them to account nor demands they be responsible.
Also I'd really, really like it if people quit talking as if managing a country's finances is exactly analogous to managing a family's finances. It is not. For one thing, a family cannot implement Quantitave Easing (i.e., print more money). For another, the things that we spend our money on are quite different (I don't know anyone who spends half their income on defense). Anyway, if we're going to make the analogy, then we would have to account for deficit spending such as buying a home -- I also don't know many people who bought their homes with cash; on the contrary, they put a down payment, and then go deeply into debt. But it is an investment and it is looked at as such. Nowadays when we discuss our country's finances we never talk about spending on education, medical, and retirement to be an investment even though it is. Instead we squander trillions on war, which can hardly be deemed an investment.
/rant
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