poorly timed public thrift — austerity

[keannu]

Source : Korean EBS, KSAT Completion 66-3

Democratic peoples — especially Americans— respond strongly to moral narratives that cleanly distinguishbetween the forces of good and evil.They have a harder time coming to grips with moral complexity and ambiguity. Private and public morality sometimes diverge. The norms of foreign policy and war are not congruent with those of domestic affairs. And the virtues of the private household do not always map neatly onto those of the publichousehold.

For example, most economists believe that poorly timed public thrift — austerity — can make a badeconomic situation worse.But most people have a hard time understanding why it can be right for a government to spendmore than it is taking in — especially if the public deficit is used to finance current consumption.

While many parents grasp the rationale of going into debt to finance a college education, they areloath to cosign loans for children’s fancy cars and flat‑screen TVs.

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How can you explain the underlined in relation to the theme of the passage?
I can understand public thrift is an example of public morality, but the next sentence is not about private morality, so I don't get what it means.

 

[Rover_KE]

First, use Edit Post to separate the pairs of words in red which have been run together by the copy and paste process, and then turn them back to black.

You need to check for this every time before posting. If you had a spellcheck it would underline these.

 

[keannu]

Source : Korean EBS, KSAT Completion 66-3

Democratic peoples — especially Americans— respond strongly to moral narratives that cleanly distinguish between the forces of good and evil.They have a harder time coming to grips with moral complexity and ambiguity. Private and public morality sometimes diverge. The norms of foreign policy and war are not congruent with those of domestic affairs. And the virtues of the private household do not always map neatly onto those of the public household.

For example, most economists believe that poorly timed public thrift — austerity — can make a bad economic situation worse.But most people have a hard time understanding why it can be right for a government to spend more than it is taking in — especially if the public deficit is used to finance current consumption.

While many parents grasp the rationale of going into debt to finance a college education, they are loath to cosign loans for children’s fancy cars and flat‑screen TVs.

=============================
How can you explain the underlined in relation to the theme of the passage?
I can understand public thrift is an example of public morality, but the next sentence is not about private morality, so I don't get what it means.

I did it, but it doesn't seem to have worked, so I reworked on it.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Source : Korean EBS, KSAT Completion 66-3

Democratic peoples — especially Americans— respond strongly to moral narratives that cleanly distinguishbetween the forces of good and evil.They have a harder time coming to grips with moral complexity and ambiguity. Private and public morality sometimes diverge. The norms of foreign policy and war are not congruent with those of domestic affairs. And the virtues of the private household do not always map neatly onto those of the publichousehold.

For example, most economists believe that poorly timed public thrift — austerity — can make a badeconomic situation worse.But most people have a hard time understanding why it can be right for a government to spendmore than it is taking in — especially if the public deficit is used to finance current consumption.

While many parents grasp the rationale of going into debt to finance a college education, they areloath to cosign loans for children’s fancy cars and flat‑screen TVs.

=============================
Can you explain the underlined in relation to the theme of the passage?

I can understand public thrift is an example of public morality, but the next sentence is not about private morality, so I don't get what it means.

Austerity during a recession just makes things worse. So economists say government should borrow during hard times to keep things going. But often, people don't understand that, even though they're doing the same thing when they borrow to put their kids through college.

I don't understand why you can't go through texts and put in spaces where they belong.

 

[keannu]

Austerity during a recession just makes things worse. So economists say government should borrow during hard times to keep things going. But often, people don't understand that, even though they're doing the same thing when they borrow to put their kids through college.

I don't understand why you can't go through texts and put in spaces where they belong.

The comparison was about "current consumption", not college tuition. Can you explain "current consumption"?

 

[Tarheel]

**Current consumption**

Food
Transportation expenses
Clothing
Monthly bills such as rent and utilities

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The comparison was about "current consumption", not college tuition. Can you explain "current consumption"?

Sure, I'll try again.

Current consumption = immediate needs.

People are willing to go into debt personally to pay for their own immediate needs, but they don't like it when the government does.