Austerity revisited…

According to this report (OK, so it is actually a syndicated story, hence the references to the US and ‘soda cans’) the UK students protest against the increase in student tuition fees was

the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures.

 

So yet again I am forced to define what austerity (as seen before in my other blog re this) although I am using a slightly different definition here, the other is still relevant

In economics, austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided. Austerity policies are often used by governments to reduce their deficit spending while sometimes coupled with increases in taxes to pay back creditors to reduce debt.

Governments around the world (the UK and NZ seem to be copying each other) are mainly playing the austerity policy game and at last someone has the sense to publicly challenge this. True, you cannot just print more money, but you do need to think about why you are introducing these measures.

Some of the quotes from the AP article state quite succinctly why people have sound arguments

"Politicians don't seem to care, they should be taking money from people who earn seven-figure salaries, not from students who don't have any money."

"We will not tolerate the previous generation passing on its debts to the next, nor will we pick up the bill to access a college and university education that was funded for them”

So, rather than this being a ‘class war’(as suggested by the likes of the right wing Sky TV News) this is  a generation war, those than benefited from the boom years are now being challenged, rightly in my opinion,  on the justice of their decisions. Another article provides a clearer insight into the political arguments, the back tracking of the Liberals, conveniently changing policy direction to become bed mates with the Tories. Not unlike the Maori party and their cosy relation with National here in NZ – about time people begin to see through that marriage of convenience.

And to finish - if Austerity involves increasing taxes to repay debt, exactly why is the New Zealand government borrowing money to pay for tax cuts?