Government Debt is Not Like Household Debt

Today I read a well-written article by Paul Krugman in The New York Times. 
We always hear in the media that Governments need to pay down their debts just as a household needs to make its mortgage payments. The dominance of neo-classical economic theory in the ruling parties of North America and Europe means this government-household analogy guides taxation and spending policies. Yet it's amazing (well, frightening in fact) that this classical perspective - which held sway in the early decades of the 20th Century and was eventually replaced in the 1930s with a more nuanced understanding of the role of governments in maintaining economic stability (ie. Keynesianism), is now stronger than ever! Here we are, in the early decades of the 21st, trying to confront the same kinds of national debt 'crises' with the same kinds of 'solutions' that were employed a hundred years ago, without considering the very dangerous legacy to be found in the history lesson. Paul Krugman's reminder that we need to rethink the role of governments in the economy (in particular in the form of taxation and spending) is just good old advice... literally.