One of the strange things about contemporary American politics is that we currently have a society who wants change in our government, will vote for any Joe Schmo who promises to enact anything resembling change, but won’t budge when it comes to changing the policies (e.g. monetary benefits) currently in place. The proponents of those policies are so firmly entrenched, that much like trench warfare from World War I, the defenses have become so effective that without new tactics, the lines will eventually become stagnant and little ground will be gained or lost.

Which is why I find it strange, in respect to new ways of thinking, that I find words of wisdom from someone I’ve railed against for years — Alan Greenspan and the flaw in the economic model that ruled the world — when it comes to changing our contemporary views on taxation.

Namely, that existing ideologies of tax cuts as a healthy thing for the economy will be reversed to become negatively stigmatized with increasing national debt.

Notable quotes:

It’s a choice between bad [raising taxes] and worse [unsustainable national debt]. We are now at a state where, excluding WWII, we are in the worst shape of relationship between borrowing capacity and debt, I suspect, since 1791.

There is this political sensitivity in both parties … where the Republicans have been cutting taxes with borrowed money [recycled Keynesianism] and the Democrats have been spending with borrowed money [Keynesian endpoints]. The only thing they agree upon is the borrowed money. And the system can not take that.

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