This article in the Financial Times is well worth a read. It is behind a pay wall, so let me hit the highlights (you can register and read the whole thing for free if you want to). Someone told the author that the people of the United Kingdom were mature enough to distinguish between problems caused by long term global trends and the decisions of their leaders. “I question whether such rationality is the norm among the British, American and European peoples. Our societies cherish a gross sense of entitlement…if today’s leaders told their peoples the truth, and articulated the most plausible and bleak scenarios for their economic future, I will bet my socks most would be electorally trounced by rivals claiming to offer panaceas.”
The reality, this author asserts and I agree, is that the “fundamental task is to reconcile electorates to accepting less of everything than they have had in the past.” “We get the political leaders we deserve. Recent evidence suggests that in America, especially, charlatans prosper on the hustings, while good people flinch from exposing themselves to the humiliations and deceits essential to secure public office. Unless or until electorates become more rational, I doubt we shall see leaders much better – though, please God and the Tea Party, no worse – than today.”
The problem is, we’ve had 30 years of charlatans promising something for nothing – and delivering by selling out a future that has no arrived. My view – if you are going to lose anyway, you might as well tell the truth.