Deficit Rag - 30 years in the history of government

Deficit good, very very good. Government borrows money, good for the banks that lend it, oils the wheels of capitalism, very very good. Deficit good, debt good. Deficit pays for expenditure. Deficit good. Everyone good good good.

Capitalism doing well, produces and produces and produces and produces,

Profits are good. Very very good, people who make profits hunting around for places to put the profits. How about lending, lending, lending. Good returns. Ah returns and returns and returns...hmmm

O but hang on capitalism produces more stuff than people can buy buy buy

Capitalism doing less well, so starts to cut back, lay people off, competition gets tougher, cut costs, lay off, go home, no job.

But capitalism invents the universal credit card, the credit card, heaven in your wallet, heaven in your pocket, b lend lend lend, owe owe owe, everyone owes, but who cares? just borrow more, have a house, buy a house, borrow to buy a house,

Oh-oh, people got laid off, capitalism was doing less well, can't pay back, can't pay back, can't pay back

Oh-oh but capitalism sold itself loan parcels, each time they sold them, they ended up owing each other more. debt debt debt got bigger and bigger between capitalists.

Capitalism goes into a spin, governments try to bail out the lenders who lent, governments can't raise enough money to pay back the people who lent them money, crisis crisis crisis. Everyone owes owes owes. Crisis crisis crisis

Now there's a different song which goes like this:

Deficit bad, very very bad. Blame previous government, blame poor, take money from the poor. It was the poor's fault. Greedy selfish poor. Bastards, layabouts, malingerers, benefit cheats. The rich must stay rich, rich, rich. The rich must have the freedom and the right to make profits..the only way they can make profits is if people are poorer, and cost less to capitalists...and governments must spend less, stop borrowing money, and make sure people spend less on taxes and more on stuff that capitalists make. yes do away with that bad bad deficit because then there'll be more credit for capitalists to spend on production and more money for people to buy stuff, but stuff buy stuff. Problem solved. solved solved.

Or not.

The new song is: deficit bad, very very bad. The solution is poor people getting poorer and poorer. They haven't even got benefits because benefits are bad, very very bad. Poor people poorer.

Oh dear, poor people can't afford to buy anything. The economy is shrinking. Everyone's still in debt. Government's still in debt. Deficit bad, very very bad.

But rich people getting richer. Yum yum yum...