Blame it all on Bush and the Republicans for what they did during the last eight years, blame it on Barack Obama and what he has done in the last six months, I don't care. All I know is that almost every city and state, and of course the Federal government, are continuing to complain about revenue shortfalls and are trying to find ways to get out of the current budget crunches that they are facing.
I started thinking about this yesterday as I was reviewing some remote diagnostics that I was working on with a customer to get their equipment fully functional. As the customer and I ran through various checks and attempted to come up with an answer, I remember saying to him at one point, "Let's not get too carried away changing too many things. This was working up until just recently, so we don't want to over complicate the situation. The simplest solutions are not only always best, but they usually manage to work."
So I said to myself, 'Self, the economy was working pretty well in recent years (not great, but pretty well), so what is the simplest solution to this economy?' Then it hit me, crank back government spending at all levels back to when Ronald Reagan entered office. If the economy matches that of 1981, why shouldn't the spending?
I know, I know, no one is ever going to go for this. Recently instituted programs would have to be abandoned (probably not a bad thing) and government spending would have to be drastically cut; but I'm guessing that even without raising taxation to the level that it was when Jimmy Carter left office, the current revenue stream would more than cover such a budget for the Feds. I likewise believe that reducing the State and City budget to those 1981 levels would end the deficits that these entities are currently looking at. The chance of this happening of course, are worse that my chances of winning the Lottery today (and I didn't play). Nevertheless I stand by my principle on this.
Simple Solutions Are The Best
1 comment:
Tim,
The simplest solutions are almost always the most effective.
I too used to work on complex equipment and, when it stopped working (much like a government) there is usually one one thing that went wrong to muck things up.
As counter intuitive as it may to the historically challenged in power at all levels of government, the answer is simple to those of us with a little historical memory.
In order to generate more government income, all that you have to do is to CUT TAXES.
Over the last 50 years or so, it has done exactly that each and every time that it has been tried.
Alas those currently in power feel the need to punish the producers, thereby shooting themselves in the foot again.
The "evil" conservatives in government can't be trusted, so their "wisdom of old" is ignored, consequently we sink further into the abyss. . .
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