The main reason jobs are being killed off is that the Government seemed to blandly accept that the boom was guaranteed as far into the future as could be foreseen, and that there was no end in sight. We are in our present situation because the Government did not adopt prudent management practices. It failed to put the national interest before narrow self-interest in its reckless determination to spend its way back into office. The Government knew exactly what it was doing and it has left a dire legacy, similar to that of its predecessor in 1977, which it will take light years to repair.