• Jesus_666@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    On the other hand, austerity politics (aka “don’t spend money in order to reduce the national debt”) tend not to work, either, because they offload maintenance to the future. Repairing broken infrastructure costs more than keeping it from breaking in the first place.

    I suppose you could just raise taxes but even with WWII-level tax ceilings it’s damn expensive to run a country.

    • teppa@piefed.ca
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      1 day ago

      Well dont forget you obviously need to cut taxes as well for economic growth, while you run these fat deficits maintaining this “critical infrastructure”.

      • Jesus_666@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I generally find that cutting taxes is more popular with the politicians who think that reducing the debt is more important than a functioning power grid and bridges that don’t collapse. Don’t ask me how the hell reducing tax income is supposed to help with the deficit but it’s probably built on the assumption that the kickbacks economic growth will make up for it.

        • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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          2 hours ago

          Those politicians pushing tax cust don’t actually want to decrease spending. They ALWAYS actually increase it, they just use that narrative to fight against spending on the people instead of into their rich buddies’ pockets