🚀 go-pugleaf

George Slade <George_Slade@mindlink.bc.ca> wrote:
>eds@islandnet.com (Ed Seedhouse) wrote:
>> Mr. Storey apparantly forgets that the deficit has actually been
>> declining, not increasing, since the election of an NDP government in
>> 1992.  The budgeted deficit is now down to zero, and the next few
>> months will tell us if the actual end of period books show that
>> figure.  They will certainly be very close, much closer than Vander
>> Zalm ever got.
 
>Ed, if you believe that I have some land to sell you.  Only 
>a total no mind would fall for the BC21 BS.  Moving some costs
>to BC21 is the same kind of bookkeeping used by the NCHS.

Unfortunately Mr. Slade apparantly continues to think that meaningless
name calling contributes to a rational debate.  Or could it be that he
is not interested in rational discussion?

>Just for the record.  The only time in the last 25 years
>that the total B.C. Government debt fell

This is all beside the point of course, since I was talking about the
deficit and the facts I cited were perfectly true.  Does Mr. Slade
really think that people are too stupid to understand the difference.

> was under Bill Vander Zalm.
>Now I may not like the guy, but he did cut the Debt.  Mike
>blew away all the cuts from three years in one year.

Mr. Vander Zalm cut the "debt" by the simple expedient of neglecting
the infrastructure of B.C. and letting it fall into ruin.  This is
like someone refusing to repair his roof in order to meet his credit
card payments.  It solves a short term problem but creates a bigger
one down the line.

Debt is a perfectly sound instrument for funding infrastructure.
Infrastructure allows the economy to generate wealth and jobs, and
that allows the debt to be paid off more easily from the wealth
generated.

The proper question is not "How high is the debt", but "How high is
the debt in relation to income".  Increasing debt is a wise move if it
allows income to rise faster than the rise in debt.

 
Ed Seedhouse
Victoria, B.C.

"Do you get that restless feeling 
 when you hear a whistle blast,
 like an echo from the past, 
 of a cold diesel rolling down 
 a road that's built to last?"

- G. Lightfoot