Stealing from the future

The economy is still sinking, but stocks are rising. Germany, France, Hong Kong and Japan are out of the woods their respective recessions have ended. Even so, everybody believes the worst is over and that stocks ought to continue on their lunar trajectory. The stimulus is working, they say. The problem is not that anyone believes this, but just that everyone believes in it. It is deluded group thinking on a massive scale.

Britain is arguably saddled with the worst public finances of any major nation, thanks to voracious spending in recent years and to borrowing that is growing faster than other developed nations. Britain is so heavily indebted that it is dubbed “Iceland-on-Thames”, suggesting Britain could follow that nation into bankruptcy.

When Britain pilfered $30 billion from their future generations to pay for their present day financial depression, Prime Minister Gordon Brown was on hand to offer his justification of the theft.

“We now have a unique opportunity to do, in a 21st-century way, what was done in the 20th century by the New Deal," Brown said. "As they built roads and bridges to create the infrastructure for the years ahead, we can use this period of adjustment to build both the technological base and human capital to equip us for the opportunities ahead.”

‘The New Deal’ construed by Herbert Hoover when President of the USA to resolve the 1930s Great Depression.

Politicians like Brown encourage the stealing from the future in order to pay for the roads to get there. The problem is, it’s not Brown’s money to spend. It must be borrowed. Rarely during these “periods of adjustment” does the concept of paying for one’s own road even enter the public dialogue? And why would it? The victims of this crime are not even born yet to defend their property. Sadly, Britain is not the only fool in the mad rush off the cliff into the sea.
Perhaps you are inclined to ask how one might go about defending a system that allows for stealing from the unborn generation? Surely no moral argument could be found to support this crime, and surely no moral man would attempt to excuse it. Politicians however, morally absent as they are, are of course exempt from such inconvenient restriction.

“Vice President Joe Biden infamously warned that doing nothing would lead to sure-fire catastrophe. Unemployment would rise above 8%, said he, - which now is already 9.5% - unless the government promptly dispensed hundreds of billions of as-yet-unearned dollars to corporate America’s Walking Dead.” And so, in an environment fraught with fear, the stimulus bill was passed. Unemployment will probably pass 10% by year’s end.

Where does the government’s intervention fit in all of this? Did stealing a few hundred billion dollars from World’s future generations help to avert catastrophe today, or merely help guaranteeing it will happen tomorrow? You hopefully may know the answer yourself!