This week’s weekly clarity coaching is a video I recently ran across of one of my favorite economists, Milton Friedman. It’s a 30-year-old interview. The interview is from March 21, 1982. I found this nostalgic and interesting because it’s the old panel format.
What really amazed me about this particular video, which is only about three minutes long, is the fact that it sounds like the nightly news today. And it makes me think of an old saying. And I haven’t sourced this yet, think it’s from Proverbs: “The more things change, the more they remain the same”. You know, there’s been a lot of talk about debt and the obvious issue we’re dealing with in our current country’s climate, this is Nothing New. In fact, I think this video exemplifies how things really haven’t changed in 30 years. Unemployment in 1982 was 10%. We had the same types of issues that we’re having as it relates to energy business confidence, etcetera.
Of course, the debt wasn’t as big as it is now. But what I think is interesting is, folks, we do not have a revenue problem in this country. We have a spending problem. The current bunch of elected official seem to not realize that they would not spend their personal money like they are spending ours I think this week’s video may ring true for any of you that may be over 50 years old and realize wow, this sounds like déjà vu. If raising taxes did not work to lower our debt in the past…it seems foolish to throw good money after bad??? What do you think?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/65892/the-taxman-cometh-milton-friedman-supports-cutting-taxes-to-stimulate-economy