Bad Ideas and BAD Ideas

Once again, I return to one of those seminal books that changed my life, "BAD Or, the Dumbing of America" by Paul Fussell, professor emeritus. And I do so in the form of a dialogue, not unlike Socrates's discussions with others in Plato's "Republic."

A: As you recall, many things are bad, but anything that is phony, pretentious, or witless beyond the pale is BAD. Can anyone give me an example of a BAD idea?

B: Letting a mass murderer go free before he's been rehabilitated.

A: No, that's an idea no one ever would say is good. It's merely bad. BAD ideas, as ideas that are pretentious, are very showy, and thus earn praise. Can you try again?

B: How about building a bridge across the ocean?

A: That's an idea that is unworkable and unsound, and an idea no one would take seriously. BAD ideas are ideas that are doable yet only work in theory and never in practice, yet despite their obvious abdication of logic, they are implemented because they are seen as novel and wonderful and not challenged enough or at all by people who know better.

B:How about the debt ceiling deal?

A: Perfect! And why is it a BAD idea?

B: Because it assumes that massive spending cuts in the middle of a recession without any tax increases will somehow spur economic development, even though the so-called logic behind said idea bears no relation at all to reality.

A: And what was the result of this deal?

B: A 513-point drop in the stock market and growing economic pessimism. Hardly what it was intended to do. Plus, it led to a downgrading of our nation's credit rating.

A: Could you argue that the debt ceiling itself is a BAD idea?

B: Yes. The debt ceiling was originated in 1917 to finance the United States’ entry into World War I by allowing the Treasury to issue long-term bonds, rather than necessitating a congressionally authorized loan for the specific purpose of financing the war effort. This allowed the federal government to market bonds to the public at large and hold down interest costs. Separate limits were set on different categories of debt, including certificates and bonds. In 1939, Congress eliminated these separate limits, which created "the first aggregate limit that covered nearly all public debt." It was suspected that the debt ceiling would restrain federal borrowing.

A: And what has the federal government done since then?

B: Why, they've raised the statutory debt limit. They did so periodically in the 1940s and 1950s to fight first World War II and then the Cold War in its early stages, but they've raised it regularly in the past fifty years.

A: How many times?

B: 75.

A: But what's different now?

B: The Tea Party - which is full of BAD ideas - has made raising the debt ceiling conditional on massive spending cuts that will hurt all but the wealthiest of us. We need to borrow money for economic emergencies like the one we're in, though, and we shouldn't be slashing spending so much.

A: Given the need to borrow money periodically, should we even have a debt ceiling?

B: No, in fact, the United States is the only major industrialized country that does.

A: What do you think this means?

B: That something crazy is going on?

A: It's more than crazy. What it is, is BAD.