Totally agree Archie but it’s not only individuals who live beyond their means - the country has been doing so for decades, driven by politicians who offer more and more simply to be elected.

There was an item on one of the ‘news’ programs recently in which people were asked how they felt extra money for public services should be raised.  They had three choices, “Businesses pay more tax”, “People pay more taxes”, “Government borrow more”.  What nobody pointed out is that the bottom line is that it is always people who have to pay for these services.  If businesses pay more, prices go up, if the country borrows more the debt still has to be paid.  Despite this the choice with the least number of ‘votes’ was “people pay more taxes”.

If we want more services they have to be paid for by the people which can be achieved in one of two ways, those already contributing paying more or more people contributing.  The former results in a slow down of the economy the latter an increase in demand for public services.