Letters to the editor on debt attitudes and the Second Coming

Should the council be spending or saving? Photo/File

Easy debt
Different generations have different attitudes to debt and different approaches to long-term financial planning. When asked which financial philosophy they preferred, half of Generation X (born 1960s to 1980s) said "enjoy and live for today", with the majority of Baby Boomers (1940s to 1964) choosing to "save and plan for tomorrow".

More than four in 10 Generation X say they are not comfortable with the amount of debt they have, while just a quarter of Baby Boomers feel uneasy with their debt.

Credit cards now function as a survival tool and a big concern is how credit is being used to finance lifestyles.

If Generation X is already uncomfortable with their level of debt, then how will they take on the intergenerational debt from the council?

Regardless of what its called, public debt is the accumulation of annual budget deficits. A budget deficit is when spending exceeds income.

It's the result of years of the council spending more than they take in via revenue. Council leaders retain popular support by providing services and big ticket items. If they want to continue being elected, they will spend as much as possible.

So which generation cycle is our current council in? Spending or losing?

Tracey McLeod
Lake Tarawera

Look what's coming
You don't have to be religious to see what's coming.

"I got the end-of-humanity blues," says Rachel Stewart in her Daily Post article - January 10.

"Doomsday clock is now set to two minutes to midnight," says Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (NZ Herald, January 26).

"The Anthropocene Age", the greatest mass species extinction event since the dinosaurs (Wikipedia).

"Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable," predicted Professor James Lovelock, developer of the "Gaia Hypothesis" (Herald, January 17, 2006).

Nearly "midnight", "blood-moon", "earthquakes", "wars" that destroy "Babylon" (Iraq and Syria) with "blood, fire and columns of smoke" and "rumours of war" (Korea).

People being "lovers of money" and "turning away from God" (Easter Trading).

The "earth will be burned by fire" (by global warming, wild fires, nuclear war?).

And to top it off, the pinnacle of our civilisation led by a modern-day Nero fiddling as our world burns.

All sounds very biblical to me. Good job there's also the Second Coming of Christ!

Bob Boardman
Ngongotaha