Comment by ftrobro | Hacker News Reader

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Comment by ftrobro | Hacker News Reader

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It seems to me that leaders who reduce public debt become unpopular, while those who increase it become popular.

Reduction of UK public debt by Thatcher (visible in the second half of the eighties):

https://ercouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ercchart171...

Increase of US public debt throughout the eighties by Reagan:

https://zfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/US-National-De...

As much as I recognise the good that Mrs. Thatcher did for the UK, I think a lot of the public debt reduction was down to North Sea oil.

Public debt is classic tragedy of the commons. The only way to solve it is to make citizens directly responsible for it.

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