By L.F. Brown
28 September 2004
“The Prime Minister [John Howard] yesterday embarked on a $6 billion spending spree…”
Editorial: What shall we do with the drunken sailor?, The Australian, 27 September 2004
Comparing a politician to a drunken sailor is quite unfair, on the sailor. Although such a comparison is not new (US Republican Senator John McCain, for instance, accused the US Congress last year of doing the same, with President Bush being complicit in it), it is still egregious.
Firstly, the drunken sailor is spending his own money (and on much more enjoyable things), or, if he decides to put some of it away for a rainy day, he saves it. The politician is spending someone else’s money, usually obtained through taxes (where a dollar spent by the government is a dollar not spent or saved by a taxpayer). Some of it may be returned, although not necessarily in the form or proportion that is hoped.
Secondly, when the drunken sailor sobers up the next morning, or the next week, the hangover is all his. Whether he was drinking cheap booze, mixing his drinks or using his schooner as an ashtray is his own problem. The ill-effects of any spending spree, whether they be a diversion of private savings or the inefficient use of resources, will generally fall on the general public, while politicians can rest a little easier thanks to their hangover cure, the taxpayer-funded salary or taxpayer-funded retirement package.
Thirdly, if the drunken sailor finds himself short of cash and isn't willing to stop racking up his tab, short of picking up a broken beer bottle and thrusting it at the throat of a hapless patron he has to borrow some and then pay it back himself at a later date. A politician too must borrow (where a dollar borrowed by the government is a dollar not lent to the private sector). And if the borrowing is not from the public (who incidentally have to pay it back eventually) and rather from the monetary system, the possibility of inflation rears its ugly head.
Fourthly, drunken sailors are a lot more amusing to listen to.
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