SACK ANDREWS, page-72

Good post Scarpa thank you for posting something sensible you just raised the level of the conversation.

I take your point about the debt

The question would have been do we take the hit now or do we take it later.

I don't think the Government had a choice because if we take the hit now then the misery would be felt for years destroying many young, and some older lives. At least by borrowing now to prevent the misery and we can grow our way out of the debt. I also think inflation will take care of it as well. For those who care do the research this is how they solved the debt and inflation problems of the 70's and 80's I remember interest rates at 16 and 17%. I was also a victim of Pyramid BS so I know it well.

I guess to put it in simple terms if you wanted to buy a house would you give up everything except the basics to save the money or borrow the money and live within your means while paying down the debt and having a reasonable lifestyle. I know it's a bit more complicated than that but it illustrates the point I'm trying to make.

I do think that we will be paying for this for years and if not managed well we will end up in the same situation they experienced 40-50 years ago although this may be unavoidable and depends on future Governments and global events. I think your graph is a little unfair because it makes no allowances for the " under normal circumstances" input. I lot of people spend extraordinary amounts of money when they need too often with tragic financial consequences.

For those interested they should research Johnson, Nixon, Keynes and Friedman and their roles in fiscal and monetary policies in the era. better still follow this link https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/1970s-great-inflation.asp which will take you down all sorts of rabbit holes. You will get plenty of warning and if you don't pay attention it can be debilitating.

The trick here would be to study the events and see if you can map what you are seeing now to events then and hopefully you can get ahead of the game. Financial ignorance is a scourge on society.

This post cannot do justice to the topic but I hope it serves to get people thinking.

Cheers
BW