VGChartz Europeans, I need your help.

[Soleron]

Kasz216 said:

Soleron said:

 

The problem with austerity is that what is politically safe to cut is cut first, not 'waste' or 'nice-to-haves'. For example, in my country this year they cut interview travel reimbursement for jobseekers, and crippled the budget for legal aid, but they continue to pursue a $50 billion single rail line, and construction of two aircraft carriers for which there are no suitable planes.

True austerity has never been seen.

Oh  I don't argue with that.

Often times polticians will cut damn near essentials rather then cut worthless bullshit waste.

Even sttill... the austerity is needed.

I did used to believe that.

But if we assume that politicians are too shortsighted to actually implement it correctly, the best course of action is just to restore consumer and business confidence. This can be done with higher spending on infrastructure/regeneration, tax incentives for business development, and in general NOT cutting things.

Basically fake recovery which will be followed by a real one born from confidence.

If you cut, you reduce the outgoings by 10% say... but the economic impact lowers GDP by 20% and you're still behind. And in reality austerity doesn't even lower outgoings. Has Greece's or Spain's or the UK's budget decreased? No.

The time for balancing the budget is GOOD times. It's not the most pressing concern vs high unemployment or prices rising faster than wages.