fiscal responsibility

Yesterday David Brooks wrote a cheerful column on why the United States, despite everything, remains in a strong position heading into the mid-twenty-first century. Sometime yesterday afternoon, I was struck when I noticed that Brooks's column had received more than 500 comments. Apparently pointing out the good news is controversial!

Here's Brooks's argument: "The U.S. is on the verge of a demographic, economic and social revival, built on its historic strengths. The U.S. has always been good at disruptive change. It’s always excelled at decentralized community-building. It’s always had that moral materialism that creates meaning-rich products. Surely a country with this much going for it is not going to wait around passively and let a rotten political culture drag it down."

This is great news, both in practice and symbolically. The new governor of Virginia aimed to save $40,000 from his transition budget, but managed to save the taxpayers $80,000 through a system of scrimping that taxpayers will no doubt appreciate during these tough times:

The grungy office space, used supplies and limited freshening of the official gubernatorial quarters paid off...