Why Austerity is Necessary: short version
Posted: February 15, 2012 Filed under: U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: austerity, confidence fairy, tax the rich 15 Comments
Does anyone honestly think austerity is important to the restoration of fiscal balance because discipline and frugality lead to wealth? The people promoting austerity are invited to dinner in places like the room to the right. They’re doing well and not practicing austerity, so the answer must lie elsewhere.
And, really, it’s not that hard to figure out if you remember not to listen to a word they say.
- 1) For whatever reason (the crash in this case) there’s not enough money to go around.
- 1a) It is necessary to get the money from somewhere.
- 2) You could get it from rich people.
- 2a) If you do this by making them take the loss (= no taxpayer-funded bailout), they will threaten to take their ball and go home. (For instance, “I won’t buy your treasury bonds. I’ll buy somebody else’s.” Government goes into cold sweat worrying about finding money and has a crisis of confidence. This is the real “confidence fairy.”)
- 2b) Assuming you must bail out the rich, the government could cover the cost by taxing the rich. But the wealthy own the media, plus they can defund re-election campaigns, so the actual people in government would be out of a job. This, too, leads to cold sweat, but it does not yet have a catchy name. (The “keep-my-job fairy”?)
- 3) You could get it from everybody else.
- 3a) Everybody else objects because they didn’t cause the problem, so why should they pay for it?
Because austerity! It sounds so much better than,
“You pay for it. I don’t want to.” And way better than,
“I don’t need you for anything, Bub. Pay up.”
Full disclosure: I am (obviously) not an economist.
Crossposted from Acid Test
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
quixote, you nailed it!
Nigel Farage on Greece: “If they don’t get the Drachma back, you will be responsible for something truly truly horrible!”
Oh no! I put that in my morning post and you beat me to it. Oh well…. I’m leaving it in anyway. It bears repeating.
You can’t hear that often enough. It’s important.
The Greek situation is part of what set me off on this rant. One of the reasons the country has such a huge deficit is that the wealthy have been using offshore tax avoidance schemes to an unimaginable degree. Any word on making up the shortfall where it came from? Noooo.
It’s disgusting. It makes me so angry! Thom Hartman said on his radio show today that the Germans want to use Greece as a vacation spot and put in luxury resorts, condos, etc. It’s like another Katrina.
Germany has never even made restitution to Greece for the treasures stolen during World War II. Now they want a vacation spot where they can own everyhing and the Greeks are servants.
It’s not only the wealthy who avoid Greek taxes. It’s the entire professional class. The only people who pay taxes in Greece are the workers and the poor. Come to think of it, that’s what the Republicans would like to have here.
That was great — and I’ll be listening again!
He has the guts to speak the truth.
Outright abortion ban introduced to Iowa House
Note there is not even an exception to save the life of the mother. Giving the nut jobs what they want.
This is how cults operate.
It really doesn’t matter if these nuts get every single law enacted they won’t be happy until they turn women into drugged reproductive tanks.
These chauvinist pigs are trying to force their religion on the Nation — one state at a time.
When I say that I hate these assholes, it isn’t just a figure of speech.
That’s why the principle of the thing matters. That’s why it’s not okay to carve out exceptions for “just birth control pills” or “just” anything. Once religion is allowed to influence (or dictate!) civil law, you’re on the road to any atrocity for the sake of religion that you’ve ever hear of. Like northwestrain says.
The only good thing is that maybe there’s a chance some people will wake up to just how “pro-life” the sexphobes are, now that they’re coming out and saying they don’t care if women die.
(Yeah, Minx. “Hate” is a weak word for it. Holy wars, here we come!)
Maybe the time has come to arm ourselves. I wish there was someway women could booby trap their vaginas to attack rapists and invasive medical people.
I think I read about a doc or midwife in South Africa invented something like what BB mentions. I don’t remember the exact details — but it can be done.