Everyone knew the 2008 recession plus the deficit would create a lost decade wages would drop andor stagnate , public services would collapse , and people would inevitable blame the government for this . What ? No they didn ' t . You ' re just making stuff up . Historically it has not been the case at all that high levels of debt leads to stagnant economies . The UK was far more heavily in debt for decades after WW 2 yet experienced some of its highest ever growth . And don ' t say Marshal plan as the halfeducated usually do at this point . I can ' t begin to explain how stupid the idea is that decades of strong growth in a country building 300 , 000 houses a year , creating new public services left and right , trying to keep an empire and spending 10 % of its GDP on defense , could be solely attributed to the Marshal plan .