Krugman: Spend Now, Save Later

[richardhutnik]

mrstickball said:

richardhutnik said:

So every time someone is irresponsible, we should remove all freedoms from them? At what point do we give the power over to someone else to decide if we are being irresponsible or not? There was a point that a governing body was allowed to make choices for its people, based on if they were deemed irresponsible. It was called the dark ages, and the Catholic Church. Still today, they do it in heavily Muslim countries that decide the government needs to step in when someone is doing something wrong...Like a woman showing her face in public.

Nope, it just happens.  As people fail to do the right things, and cause a lot of negative externalities, the government will step in to fix things, or try to.  That is why I will repeat again what I said before... you get more government as people fail to manage their own problems.  And the body politic will gladly hand it over.  Look at what happened after 9/11.  The public gladly turned itself over to give the government the Patriot Act.

So, to sum up again what I have said multiple times before... as the public fails to deal with things, the government will remove things.  The giving of freedom alone doesn't fix a nation that handles freedom badly.  And that is reality.  Want to get more freedom?  Well, become an inspired leader and motivate people to do the right things.  If you can't you will get less freedom.