Economic Uplift Quotes

In 1790 Hamilton, the then Treasury Secretary, proposed a plan whereby the new nation would assume a national debt and bail out the states from their war debt. There was much debate, but Hamilton’s plan prevailed and then succeeded beyond all expectation of even supporters. None the less, Jefferson and some others continued to criticize the plan despite the fact that the country was far better off. What Hamilton had not counted on was the power of ideology and the issue of fairness. Jefferson and some others were ideologically opposed to national debt and even if it had turned out that their fears were wrong, they still opposed in principle, just as Republican ideologists opposed the Clinton tax increase even after the economy boomed and the budget was balanced. Or President’s Bush and Obama implementing the TARP program which saved the nation from a worse recession and likely depression. Nonetheless, there were many who castigated the Presidents of both parties. There are always two negatives about working out of an economic crises: Some people are ideologically opposed to the method of solution, The other problem that is even greater is that some people make money our of the fix and others are hurt worse. It is almost always unfair. Citizens resent that even if the policy solved the economic problem. In Hamilton’s case, speculators had gotten rich at the expense of others during the process, and the inequity bothered many despite the national success. See {619939}, {619930}, {619929}, {619928}.