We are now in the process of expanding the public debt - in our childrens' name - beyond previously imagined boundaries. Apart from being a questionable practise to use much more money than you earn - it is also by definition leading to over-consumption.
And what are we borrowing for? Is it for creating more sustainable structures and way of life? Is it for the better productivity in face of rapidly dwindling workforce? Or is it panicky - preserving old structures and protectionism - soon obsolete factories
and not needed heavy physical infrastructure?
What will our children say if the will face:
1. very high debt levels > scant space to borrow more if needed
2. high taxes to serve the debt and the higher share of old age population > limited opportunities to decide how their earnings are being used
3. old and increasingly obsolete structures still there > productivity heading south as smaller workforce will be available for value adding work
4. saving the globe stayed at lip service level too long - until there was no investment resources left..
We need brave political leaders - and a new attitude amongst us business executives: driving so much needed re-orientation and co-regulation instead of resisting necessary regulation to the degree that it becomes useless - as it turned out to be in the investment
banking case. Quarterly capitalism has turned out to become too much of an uncontrollable beast - destroying shareholder value by taking too much of the short view and preventing too many to see that we have to take responsibility together with democratic
institutions.