Rules for tight times

A smart person learns from his or her mistakes; a truly wise person learns from the mistakes of others.

Hopefully.

That is, of course, if one believes all - or even a few - of the liberal/ leftist gossip stating Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a neo-con.

Somehow, “fiscal conservative” has become a bad term. Anyone who doesn’t want to spring for this or that “could-have” social program could well be open to such branding.

Unfortunately, being too stingy, trying to reduce government infrastructure and power can have its downside - particularly in times of genuine need and threat.

Like now.

The current maze in which we find ourselves is indicative of why we need strong economic and financial regulations, nationally and internationally; with a good dash of morality, and even civics.

Even in rough and tumble Medieval times - when they used to hang, draw and quarter folks for minor crimes and burn them at the stake for going to the wrong church - they had rules and regulations pertaining to business and commerce. There were Church rules against usury; the rise of guilds helped regulate everything from shoemaking to baking. From these seeds grew the environment that allowed all the good our economies have accomplished in recent decades.

Often, government money helped beget other money for the economy.

But, in a massive economic meltdown – call it recession or depression, what’s better than a fiscally conservative government? To have than one that has to spend to help alleviate the situation, and takes full advantage of what’s available to build or repair infrastructure?

Governments of the left, which are used to spending money in huge clumps, could be seen as being so used to it they wouldn’t take utmost care in getting the best value for that funding. Let’s trust Harper and his colleagues have learned the value of what larger government powers and surpluses can do in a pinch.

As for the folly of the long on-going American business deregulation that landed the world in this stew, no one could miss the lesson in that. Hurricane Katrina was just a foreshadowing of what can happen when a government paints itself into a position where it can’t do its duty to its citizens.

Anyway, that American government – or the latest installment of that sort of thing – will be gone in January.