Who is, needless to say, a frothing idiot. He was frothing on about how horrible the deficit is, and how we need to slash spending. It occurred to me that what we need isn't Paul Krugman making well-thought out economic arguments about the value of burying bottles filled with money, what we need is a good metaphor in regards to deficit spending, why it's up, and what to do about it.
Here's my attempt:
Our country is like a family. We're not in trouble now because we suddenly rushed out and spent money like wildfire, we're in trouble because we stopped getting money. The deficit is growing primarily because of a decrease in revenue, not an increase in spending. This is what would happen, if, in a family where the mom and dad both work, dad lost his job and suddenly the family has to get by on less money. Now when that happens, you don't stop buying groceries and paying the mortgage, because if you do those things, dad is going to be too hungry to look for work and he's not going to be able to take a shower before going to interviews. What you do in that bad situation is maybe you take money out of your savings to pay for the essentials, the food and the housing, so that you can get back on your feet in a year or so. You may even take money out to pay for extra education for Dad, so that when he gets a new job, he can get a better job.
That's the situation this country is in right now. The deficit is growing because tax revenues are down, not because spending has skyrocketed. We need to borrow money to keep paying for the essentials now when we need them so that we'll continue to have a bright future when this is over. We may even want to borrow a little more -- get Dad a new suit, or a professional resume consultant, or some job training -- so that he can get an even better job than the one he had, so that the future will be a little brighter. When this recession is over, we'll have to think of strategies to pay ourselves back, just as the family in the metaphor will have to replenish their savings when Dad gets that new job and the family is back on its feet.
People, normal people, don't read Krugman and who have never taken an economics class in their lives, but we all understand how families work.
Any other suggestions of how we can use metaphors to help explain complex issues?