Nobody likes to give up comfortable old habits that make us feel secure and content or that are predictable and familiar. Even when the data show that those habits are bad for us (think smoking), or unsustainable (think Defined Benefit plans) we still find it hard to give them up. The time comes, though, when the smoker develops cancer or the treasury is empty, and that’s the moment of conversion. Real change happens only in crisis. So it is with the state’s response to the Great Recession – the crisis has finally hit and change, though difficult, is under way. (more…)
