Tradisi APBN Defisit itu sudah terjadi sejak lama. Saya akan kutip banyak tulisan Prof. Abu Omar Faruq, tulisan bagus sebagai bahan perenungan.

"The “debt culture” is not that old. As the USA is at the forefront of this culture, it might be worthwhile to note that the founding fathers of that nation were aware of this tendency and reminded themselves of the timeless wisdom, as in the words of Thomas Jefferson: “Never spend your money before you have it” (Monticello.org, n.d.). But over time that wisdom was reduced to insignificance by the motto “Buy now, Pay later,” which is the essence of debt culture – “wanting everything now rather than waiting and working for something that you really want” (Hankel and Isaak, 2011, p. 85; Flax, 2010, p. 3). American love affair with consumer credit began in the 1920s (Geisst, 2010, p. 3; Krehm, 1999, p. 177). The triumph of the Keynesian revolution over the classical/neoclassical school during the Great Depression era and the following decade provided powerful and attractive rationale for the government in the form of countercyclical stabilization policy framework (Macdonald, 1999, p. 127; Willett, 1988, p. 131; Auerbach and Kotlikoff, 1998, p. 229; Friedman and Friedman, 2010, p. 256) to partake in this love affair with debt (deficit financing). As Graeber (2012) in his fascinating historical work, explained: “Personal credit received a bad press in the eighteenth century. It was frequently said that it was wrong to go into debt simply to pay for everyday consumption goods” (Chapter 11, note no. 67)."

Intinya, Utang Merupakan Budaya dalam Tradisi Keuangan Konvensional, sejak era Keynesian. Budaya utang tidak hanya terjadi di Level Negara, tetapi juga di level rumah tangga, dan perusahaan. Bahkan dalam semua literature utama Keuangan "Utang itu Positif, karena dapat meningkatkan kinerja". Banyak teori menceritakan ini. Beraaaaat?? Iya....Hampir semua negara punya Hutang bessar sekali dari GDP mereka. Pertanyaanya, jika semua negara punya Hutang, lalu siapa yang Menghutangi????. Berat to...Siapa Sesungguhnya Kreditor di dunia ini???.  Ini tentang DEBT CULTURE...dan Terjadi juga di Islamic Finance.

Implikasinya juga luas lho...Debt culture di APBN ini terdapat isu "intergenerational equity", katanya "The principle of fairness is at the heart of the issue of intergenerational equity. From macro-social perspective, policies, institutions and culture should prevent major inequities in this regard so that one generation does not try to overconsume or attempt to augment its standard of living at the expense of future generations. Of course, there are positive intergenerational externalities (Tietenberg, 2000, p. 288)". Terdapat juga isu "Rising debt can increase systematic risk considerably and make the economies seriously vulnerable, especially in an interconnected, globalized world". 

Begitu saja...

---