# Are fiscal conservatives "deficit hawks" -- or deficit dodos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 8, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110 "2010-02-08T03:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110/21 "2010-02-08T19:34:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > This strikes me as not only jaw-droppingly commonsensical, but a striking illustration of how “fiscal conservatism” is linked to the atomistic RW No. Both you and the article are missing the difference between **having a debt** and **running at a loss**. In the former case, like a car loan or a mortgage, you are happily paying it off from your income, because your income exceeds your expenditure - including your repayments. In the latter, once your savings run out, you’re continually borrowing more and more to pay off earlier debts, because your expenditure exceeds your income, and eventually it will collapse. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110/22 "2010-02-08T20:43:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Except that businesses create wealth. Government redistributes wealth. Yeah, right on. The govt never created wealth. Except when they supported rural electrification, started the TVA, built the hydro electric dams in the NW that led to businesses starting up to take advantage of the low electricity rates, dredged rivers for navigation, built the Panama canal that cut weeks off the time it took to ship freight, or the Erie canal, or built water systems that allowed places like NYC to flourish. But aside from that they never created wealth. Well except for when they put the land grant college system in place and created the County Extension system that led to the US being the most productive agricultural producer in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110/23 "2010-02-09T01:06:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Except that businesses create wealth. Government redistributes wealth. Borrowing to create wealth is good, assuming you have a good business plan. Borrowing to redistribute it is not. False dichotomy. Government is a business. In fact, the US government is the largest business in the world. And while the government is redistributive of wealth, so is every other business above the level of neolithic subsistence farming. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110/24 "2010-02-09T01:15:25Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Clearly, the only answer is to cut prices more, and spend less on the plant. Oh, and send some guys over to wreck the factory down the street, the one that makes a totally different product. That’ll work. I find your ideas intriguing, and the Republican National Committee would like to subscribe to your newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110/25 "2010-02-09T01:18:31Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > No, I think the question led us to what we have today. BAILOUTS. Bad ones to boot. > > The idiot brother would be your typical bank. The other idiot brother would be the federal government trying to fix it’s own mess. Nonsense. Most reputable economists, from what I read, agree that the bailouts, though odious, were far better than letting the banking system collapse. Whether there should have been more strings attached to them is another matter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fiscal-conservatives-deficit-hawks-or-deficit-dodos/528110.md?page=1)