The Age of Austerity

Unless you've been living up in the sticks these past couple of years most of you will have noticed that the economy has gone down the shitter. If the riots in Greece recently are anything to go by then such scenes may, in the most hypothetical dystopian scenario, be replicated in cities around the UK in response to today's budget.

First, what exactly kind of a mess are we in? Britain's current public debt (government spending) sings to the tune of around £155billion, a result from essentially borrowing and spending money irresponsibly. That is to say nothing of the national debt, some £900billion, or 62% of GDP, second only to Ireland in Europe. So it would seem that in order to reduce the deficit one would have to stop spending. Simple, yes?

On paper. So why the sudden rush by Cameron's coalition to slash everything? Well, it is based on a peculiar view of the financial crisis; Chancellor Osborne is worried that Britain's economic 'recovery' (if you're optimistic about all this) is threatened by high interest rates. Simply, the more money government borrows, the more expensive it becomes for the likes of you and I to borrow, thus hampering economic growth.

Not exactly a proven argument, but that's the reasoning, even though the Bank of England has shown no signs of raising interest rates, partly due to inflation being low. The Tories are essentially scared that if they continue to borrow money investors will refuse to lend more unless the government pays it back at a higher interest rate, creating perpetual debt. It is a plan born out of the worst possible scenario envisaged; i.e. a run on the pound and loss of international confidence. This is all in spite of there being no such signs. Yet.

But they've gone and done it anyway. What are they cutting/increasing then? For starters, VAT is going up to 20% and public sector pay is to be frozen, which means in real terms that a lot of us are going to be a lot worse off than before. On the plus side they are taxing those wanker-bankers and freezing council tax. Child and housing benefits will however be cut and tax credits reduced, which will probably put a lot of poorer people in the shit. So, you're all going to have less money as consumer prices go up by 2.7%. Oh, and they expect unemployment to go up to 8.1%, but given the unscrupulous way in which unemployment statistics are massaged I would wager the real figures will be somewhat higher. At least the bastards have kept their grubby little mits off alcohol and cigarettes.

So what do I think about it all? Well, Labour were irresponsible tits for spending more money than sense, so clearly some sort of balance has to be struck. But to cut spending in the midst of a global recession might not be the wisest idea in the world, unless you purposely want to plunge your country into a double-dip recession and cause unemployment and consequently social unrest, possibly riots. Decisions decisions. Damn, human beings really are fucking r-tards...