Sheer Hypocrisy

We need to increase public spending if we're going to stem corporate bankruptcies and the rise of unemployment. The country's finances will be strained by more spending and the fiscal deficit will rise, but it is something we can no longer avoid. People are having difficulty coping, and a majority of households are running into debt. The same is true with corporations. The only entity left to take on more debt is the government -- there's no escaping this fact.

The longer road presents the quickest path to economic revival. Those who advocated direct fiscal reconstruction have failed. They achieved the opposite of what they intended, grinding economic growth to a halt and ballooning the fiscal deficit. We can't bear any more of their ill-advised policies. Instead, we need policies that will bring us back to economic growth. To do that, we need more public spending.

There are some newscasters on TV that insist on drowning out anyone advocating more public works or lower taxes. "It's just more pork-barrel politics," they cry. "Don't leave a bill for future generations! Do you think it's OK to leave the nation in debt?" Kurotani, the newscaster for Fuji TV's "Hodo 2001," spouts at the viewing audience with a barely contained rage toward public works. Can't he be more level-headed and objective?

It's true that we shouldn't leave a bill for future generations. But we can't just think in terms of public spending -- we have to consider the whole economy and society at large. The real crime would be leaving behind a failed economy for our children.