Opinion: You may have seen the article in the media recently where a high school Social Studies teacher was telling his students all about government debt. It started with him asking the kids how much they thought the debt was, the debt that they would be paying in their adult lives.
They, of course, didn’t have much of an idea of what it was, and when they found out they were, naturally, both surprised and irritated. The teacher even went so far as to thank the kids for paying the bills for things that his generation had incurred.
It was kind of a good story. A bit entertaining. It’s always nice to see people express surprise at something that they are seeing or hearing for the first time.
But it was only half the story, and in teaching only half the story, the teacher really did the kids a disservice. The rest of the story is that in exchange for that large debt, the kids also got quite a few things that they wouldn’t have had without it.
To begin with, the kids probably woke up to the sound of an alarm clock, which was powered by electricity from some government-funded utility.
Then they would have commuted to school via some government-owned and maintained roads, possibly even in the comfort of a government-owned, government-operated and maintained school bus, and then spent five or six hours in a government-owned school, taught by government-paid teachers.
Then, if on the way home from school, one of the kids trips over a curb and breaks their leg, they get treated in the government-owned and operated hospital, paying no bill when they leave because it’s covered by the government medical system.
I grew up about two city blocks from where David Thompson spent at least two winters, just northwest of Invermere.
And when I think of the struggles he and his contemporary explorers experienced in opening up our part of the country, I am so glad that he and the others were strong enough to meet the challenges they had, since I don’t think I could have done it.
Just think of it. Those guys had to figure out their own transportation routes, not knowing what may be ahead of them, maybe some calm flowing waters, maybe some falls that they can’t see. They had to catch their own food, whether it be fowl, fish or venison.
And what do you do with your own clothes when you’ve worn them for ninety or a hundred days in a stretch? It’s easy to say that you just wash them in the river and let them dry in the sun; it’s a little harder to do it. And think too, if one of them might have developed a burst appendix while fighting summer mosquitoes here in our valley. Maybe there weren’t any mosquitoes in those years! Are you kidding!
But one thing David Thompson didn’t have to worry about was government debt! It would be interesting to be able to ask him if he could have changed anything to make his travels easier, what would it be? He might have been willing to exchange a little government debt for a paved road or two. Or a grocery store on a hungry night. Or a doctor if he sprained his ankle.
So here we are, in 2025, two centuries after Thompson floated down the Blaeberry River, and we have all the luxuries the early guys couldn’t even contemplate.
And we complain.
Don’t get me wrong, I wish the debt were all paid off, too.
But until we get it paid, we should at least recognize that there are two sides to the story. Yes, we have some debt, but we have a host of government assets and services that were bought and paid for with that debt, services that may have been available when you desperately needed them.
So if you got a tax bill recently, when you pay it, you can know that you are paying for a lot of services, past and present, and that, at least hopefully, most of them were provided for good and legitimate purposes.
If you are young and haven’t yet seen a tax bill with your name on it, you will as soon as you buy your first house or piece of property.
Now, a piece like this wouldn’t be complete without a few numbers, would it!
So here’s a couple.
My friend, Google, tells me that our provincial debt in B.C. is $145 billion. That’s the bad side.
But, like I’ve said above, there are two sides to this.
So it also tells me that the value of B.C. real estate is $2.79 trillion. That’s 19 times the amount of the debt.
Then, in addition to the real estate there is all the money that we (all British Columbians) have in bank accounts, the value of stocks and bonds that we own, the value of the horses and cows that we own (we own 80,000 dairy cows alone, just to give us milk), the cars and trucks and the 20 bucks you’ve got in your pocket that Grandma sent you for your birthday (you want to stay on the good side of Grandma!).
So, we have some debt, and if we had less, it would be better.
But we also have a few things that we could take to the pawn shop if we had to.
It could be worse.
And if David Thompson could choose between living in the early 1800s and today, you can be sure that he would choose our day, with all our cell phones and other gadgets.
Duane Crandall is a retired newspaper publisher, having owned and operated The Golden Star from 1982 – 1987, and the Golden News from 1992 – 2003. He served as MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke from 1986 – 1991.
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