On the Deficit

I was talking this morning to someone who should know better, but was plugging away at the "we need to balance the budget or the deficit will get us all" meme.

I had to ask him:

If you had a burning desire to become a lawyer, which course of action would leave you richer at the end of your life, all other things being equal?

1. You enter law school and put your expenses on the tab generally called "school loans" and pay them off with your newly augmented income.

or

2. You spent 15 or 20 years saving up the money to go to law school and pay for it as you go with the money you have saved.


We so desperately need a new jobs oriented stimulus, and all I hear from the media is the old worn but comfortable battlecry - "deficit spending!!! evil!!! balance the budget!!!"

Imagine what might happen in our country if we built a solar panel and wind turbine factory in every county in America, with contracts from the govt to buy enough panels and turbines to take the price down into affordable territory for the rest of us. Further, we could mandate that our power companies buy back electricity from individuals at better than the going price (like Germany did to stimulate their alt energy market). We could line every freeway right of way with solar panels, and get off coal, while creating jobs in the tech and construction sectors.

What are we waiting for?