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It's also basically what Maggy Thatcher did with Britain's North Sea oil money.

It's funny, discussing this story on Facebook, a friend of mine, staunch left-winger, said that Thatcher "pissed the money away". Hang on a second, I said. Are you now saying that government spending/the welfare state is just pissing money away?

Being left-wing doesn't mean you agree with all government spending

Sure. But assuming we had saved the money, what would have been not-paid-for in the meantime?

Tax cuts?

Well, if you spend it over a short period rather than a long period, it can be considered "pissing money away" without changing your views on what it was spent on.

Having said that, I don't quite recall Thatcher being famous for spending oil revenues on expanding the welfare state (and it doesn't sound like something her supporters, then or now, would approve of) so maybe I'm missing something here?

The money went somewhere, right? It was spent on something, not invested. Ergo, something was paid for that would not otherwise have been.

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