Commentary
It sometimes seems as if there were nowadays a law of the conservation of anxiety: If we aren’t anxious about one thing, we’ll be anxious about another.
For example, it isn’t all that long ago that we were worrying about the dangers of deflation, but now it’s inflation that we must worry about. Of course, inflation is more readily observable than deflation, but economists told us that deflation was a deadly hazard. The rate of inflation was too low, they said, and suggested that measures be taken to raise it to 2 per cent.
In short, it seems that whatever the rate of appreciation or depreciation of the value of money, it’s the wrong one, and therefore something to worry about. “I think, therefore I am,” said Descartes; it would be more accurate nowadays to say “I worry, therefore I am.” Not to worry is not to care, and there’s no defect of character in these days of conspicuous compassion than that of not caring….