[ExI] libertarianism

[William Flynn Wallace]

Thanks John - now the question is:  in terms of a household budget, is a
balanced budget a good thing?  (Ignoring mortgages, since few can put down
the cash.  Another question:  if they could, should they?  They lose the
advantage of paying back money that is of a lesser value because of
inflation, but gain the investing of money that would have gone to a
mortgage.)

bill w

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 6:20 PM John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 4:40 PM William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >>a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow and that's why
>>> people borrow money and that's why interest exists.
>>
>>
>> *> Is this why some people I've heard say that a balanced budget is a bad
>> idea?   That debt is a good thing?  bill w*
>>
>
> Yes I think so. It's not necessary or even desirable for a government to
> balance its budjet each and every year. Good thing too because except for a
> couple of years during the Clinton administration the USA has spent more
> money then it had every year since 1835, and so has nearly every country on
> the planet, and yet we survive and still have a civilization. Government
> borrowing can be a very good thing, particularly in times of economic
> downturn, if they had massively started to borrow money 1929 would be known
> as the year of a garden variety recession but instead they thought that
> was a good time to reduce the debt and so 1929 is known as the year a huge
> decade long global economic catastrophe started.
>
> But of course you can overdo debt just like everything else. With Trump
> the national debt is today 107% of GDP, and that's the highest its been
> since 1946 when we were paying off the cost of the second world war which
> we couldn't have fought if we hadn't borrowed money. It probably hasn't
> escaped your notice that today the Republicans control the Executive,
> Legislative and, as of a few weeks ago, the Judicial branches of
> government. And those are all the branches there are.
>
> But is 107% too high? I honestly don't know, but I do know we're not today
> in a economic downturn and we're not paying off a world war.
>
> John K Clark
>
>
>
>
>
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