Debt Insanity

Thanks to Jim for sending me this link to an American youtube video about government debt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li0no7O9zmE

It illustrates the current fiscal position of the American government by presenting the conversation which a man whose household debt, income, spending, and saving plans were exactly in proportion, to those of the U.S. Federal government, except that the latter is 100 million times larger, might have with his bank manager.

We can't afford to laugh at this. A similar parody could be done for the position of the British government. The figures would not be as dreadful as the ones at the end of the "Debt Limit" clip, but they would be quite bad enough to worry any responsible person. And that's after the coalition has taken hugely controversial steps to cut the deficit, and reduced it by a quarter.

Too many people do not understand how near we are to a Cyprus-style mess.

I would argue that the present government does understand this, and it is what is driving all the unpopular decisions for which the government is getting such a lot of flak. It's the people sleeping out in bandstands to protest at the so-called "Bedroom Tax" (there is no such proposed tax) or otherwise trying to blame the problems of the country on government cuts, who just don't get it. They have exactly the same inability to understand their country's financial position as the man in this clip has in respect of his own.

Unfortunately instead of a responsible opposition, we have a Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Chancellor who,  if economic insanity were grounds for detention under section two of the Mental Health Act, would be in danger of being locked up as a menace to their fellow citizens.

A responsible opposition would be challenging the government on whether they are doing enough to get the debt down, not calling for even more borrowing.

YOU CANNOT BORROW YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT.

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