The excerpt from Wolin’s book addresses the intertwining nature between political theory and contemporary social concerns. Wolin utilizes Hobbes’s example and claims that political philosophers’ foundations of thoughts are largely grounded in their own perspective of the contemporary issues. I strongly agree with this statement. The historical development of political theory cannot be separated from the development of society itself. Through the attempt to interpret and settle major societal concerns by political theorists, the political theory is elevated, and the problems of society are often solved. This can be exemplified by the ongoing debate over U.S. budget deficit.
The U.S. budget deficit is of paramount importance because it relates not only to the wealth of the nation, but also to the economic well-being of the general population. Furthermore, the issue of the budget deficit will have an enormous impact on generations to come. Since the financial crisis, U.S. national debt has risen tremendously, reaching 90% of the nation’s GDP at one point.(Office of Management and Budget) If the debt continues to increase, creditors might become impatient and demand their money back, which could potentially lead to a Eurozone-like debt crisis in the States. Therefore, the U.S. government must take efforts to reduce the budget deficit to normal levels.
However, the method by which the government should go about reducing the deficit has been hotly debated. At the end of 2012, when several major tax cut programs expired and spending cut programs came into action, the U.S. nearly underwent a $487 billion reduction in budget deficit. (Office of Management and Budget) Although this so called “fiscal cliff” could have greatly mitigated the current debt issue, it also had some severe negative projections like decreases in GDP, decreases in personal spending, and increases in unemployment rate. Because of this dilemma over whether or not the U.S. should decrease the deficit at the expense of GDP, personal spending, and many workers who would become unemployed, the government postponed the deficit cut until the economy fully recovers. It is true that by postponing the fiscal cliff, the current economy may show signs of recovery, but we are transferring the even riskier debt burden to the next generation, who will eventually be forced to pay the debts. Also, how the government should go about reducing the budget deficit is a huge issue. Budget deficit can be balanced through either spending cuts or tax increases, or both. Spending cuts in any given sector would harm many related groups. For example, a cut in the budget for nutrition programs could potentially harm the welfare of pregnant moms. Another example would be that military spending cut would affect the quality of living of soldiers. On the other hand, tax increases would certainly be unfavorable for every household of US, regardless of wealth levels. In all, budget deficit balancing is a very delicate topic for the government because it is an urgent issue that needs to be solved, while also creating morality concerns because of