Madword said:
3. Spending more money when you are in debt is a bad idea generally. I dont think when you are talking about the level of debt that britain has, anyone could argue thats a good idea. Oh I understand the concept of infrastructure imrpovements, but generally no one believes spending lots of money when you are in debt is a good idea. If you have credit card debt of £2000, is it a good idea to go out and spend another £1000, if your job is struggling to pay off the balance? So yeah, I think my facts are pretty good. |
I'm going to pick up on this point because I think there is a lot of Tory rhetoric behind this view and whilst it's right in some respects, it's also a very simplified view.
Spending money when in debt is generally bad but it does depend heavily on where that money is spent. Your viewpoint suggests that most Government spending doesn't have a benefit to the economy and public finances, but cost/benefit analyses often shows there are a lot of areas in which spending can vastly improve economic growth and public finance. For instance, for every £1 spent in science research, the economy will benefit by £3 within 5 years due to the jobs and companies that form from new discoveries. There are plenty of areas of spending that will help improve public finances, even some that you may think are a complete drain on resources.
@ bolded
On your analogy, if you spend that £1000 on alcohol and drugs, that'd be a waste, but if you spent it on getting a qualification that got you a job that paid you enough to comfortably pay off your credit card bills, that would be worth it.
