If only there were a well known maxim about this...
Originally posted on my private blog on January 25th, 2009.
Politicians have an unfortunate tendency to eliminate social investments in the drive to reduce short term deficits. Whenever you have a social program (or infrastructure investment) with solid scientific evidence behind it that it will yield far more in savings or revenue growth than is spent then it should be exempted from deficit considerations. It makes no sense to build a new school and then scrimp on insulation simply because the larger overall heating cost doesn't occur on this year's balance sheet. What's worse is that the ability to make such misguided cuts allows decision makers to avoid the more difficult, legitimate ones. The standard of proof for such investments would necessarily need to be high as this should not become a form of government wagering.
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