Café Inquiry (Online) – Are U.S. Budget Deficits a Problem?

This event is held online. (Click the button to join the Zoom meeting.)

Every time a budget cycle comes around there is much hand-wringing, wailing and gnashing of teeth over the U.S. government’s profligate ways and the growing national debt we will be dumping on our descendants, dooming them to lives of darkness and misery. (Never mind that many of these same people seem perfectly content to inflict the very real ravages of climate change on those same descendants – but I digress). While many economists see continued budget deficits and our increasing national debt as an existential threat, many others see it as no big deal. Join us ONLINE for the next Café Inquiry as we take a deeper look at this issue, and at why government debt is different from household debt.  This Op-Ed from the Brookings Institute discusses why our current budget deficit is not really a problem. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget goes into great detail about why deficits are bad. To contrast, Modern Monetary Theory, described in this Investopedia article ,holds that the availability of real resources should be the only limit on government’s spending ability. Hope to see your virtual selves there!

Café Inquiry starts with a short introduction of the day’s topic, followed by casual discussion.

This event is free and open to the public. Donations appreciated, but not expected.

Attendees are able to future propose topics which would align with Michigan Humanist’s purpose: from atheism, agnosticism, humanism, secularism, and freethinking to broader subjects in science and humanities, such as religion, philosophy, social issues, politics, evolution, morality, ethics, and psychology.

Café Inquiry (Grand Rapids) meets each month on the second and fourth Sunday.

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Michigan Humanists values the participation of all guests — requests for reasonable accommodation may be made by contacting the event host at least three days prior to the event.

Michigan Humanists expects all guests to engage in respectful discussion. Critiques on views and claims based on merit are allowed, but not attacks on individuals who hold other perspectives.

Any person engaging in disruptive behavior or harassment will be asked to leave, and may be banned from future events pending the severity of the action. Please speak to the event host or contact info@michiganhumanists.org if you feel these expectations are being violated.