The Problem with Deficit Spending

By Richard Donaldson

We all know someone, or perhaps are someone, who lives way beyond their means. In America today, you may know multiples of people in this category. Maybe you have often heard the phrase, “Well, I deserved this” or “An education at the best school is important” or anything along those lines. It generally means I spent way more than I had. What usually happens is sometime, down the road, the person expresses regret. This could be the new graduate with a 100K in debt to get a 40K/year job, or it could be the old person wondering how they are going to afford retirement. In fact, I can’t recall a time in my life that someone said what a good idea a mountain of debt was, except for maybe a house.

With all life on this planet, things mostly come down to one equation: production versus consumption. The tiger needs to produce a successful hunt to consume a deer. If the tiger isn’t able to produce, its body will literally consume itself, i.e. starve. It is also like this for humans all though we rarely think in those terms. Being social creatures, we tend to look out for the weaker ones, those unable to fend for themselves. The result is that it is hard for a person to starve in the USA. Two or three hundred years ago, that wasn’t always true, and for most of mankind’s history, it definitely wasn’t true. This is a good thing because no one should starve. But what about a…