Deficit squawk.

Congratulations to Sebastian Mallaby ("The Deficit Conquers All," September), who provides a very sobering account of what will happen to America. However, the United States is no different from most of the Western world. We all face the same problem. Western countries, particularly the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been spending like drunken sailors, financed by massive amounts of credit or spending savings supposedly locked away for Social Security, superannuation, and medical liabilities in the future.

This has led to financial asset bubbles that in turn require even more spending just to purchase them in the first place. As monetary authorities hit the printing presses in order to keep these asset bubbles afloat, the worse the bubbles become, and so on and so on. But this is what capitalism is all about.

The car crash round the corner for most of the "Western governments is the fact that their demographics will not be able to support this scenario for long. The baby boomers are getting old and their expectations for retirement are exaggerated.

No matter what democratically elected governments do from here on, it is probably too late to avoid the crash, using any of the above author's suggested methods, however honorable and prudent they are. The eventual solution will be the lowering of Western countries' Standard of Living which will he forced on us.

Gavin Wallace

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