Thread: VALE Tim Fischer

Tim seemed to be a man of great forethought, I have his "Trains Unlimited" book and agree that even if we don't have the funds/concrete plans to build hi-speed rail at the moment, we should definitely be acquiring the land to do so.

Yes, he was a good bloke.
We can easily afford high speed rail. Government debt is relatively low and governments can borrow at even lower rates. We need to invest in our infrastructure to make our cities work properly.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Yes, he was a good bloke.
We can easily afford high speed rail. Government debt is relatively low and governments can borrow at even lower rates. We need to invest in our infrastructure to make our cities work properly.

Unfortunately governments are dead scared of running deficits these days to 'prove' they are better economic managers....
We'll end up like Germany soon....

People have been sold the false idea that government budgets are like household budgets, when actually they are very different. Governments have to invest to support productivity gains for the future, which then pays for the costs. Governments don't have to pay dividends to shareholders, the shareholders are the people.

That is right, but there have been quite a few examples round the world of governments accumulating a deficit so large that the interest became a major part of the budget. Australia risked this in the 1980s - even though the accumulated deficit was not all that high, interest rates were. But with current low interest rates, it seems now would be the time to run a deficit - but not too much or it will push up interest rates, and a combination of high deficit and high interest rates can rapidly get disastrous.