Cold Turkey on Debt

Fareed Zakaria writes in Newsweek. “As economist Jeffrey Sachs points out, ‘We've wanted lots of government, but we haven't wanted to pay for it.’ … Every city, every county and every state has wanted to preserve its many and proliferating operations and yet not raise taxes. How to square this circle? By borrowing,” he writes. At some point, he suggests, consumers had to stop using their homes as banks and spending money that they didn't have. We must all learn to live within our means. “This discipline will be painful for a country that has gotten used to having it all,” Zakaria writes.