Why the young should welcome austerity

Major governments will either find something that works, or we are likely to see repeats of the French Revolution translated to modern times and idioms.

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#4

Post by 46Bit » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:24 PM UTC

I'd say this is spot on, but the question is that of whether paying off the vast majority of the debt is even possible. In the USA especially, I've long since concluded it simply cannot happen.

Look at how much bickering the Republicans and Democrats have over even relatively minor issues. $10^9 is one 15-thousandth of the national debt and there's fights about such amounts.

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#5

Post by protomyth » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:36 PM UTC

lkrubner wrote: post #2

An extended counter-argument emerges from these blog posts: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/think-of-the-chi... http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/doing-their-best... http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/insane-in-spain/

Given Krugman's little rant on Sweden http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/sweden-sweden-as... which spawned responses like http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/sweden-no-longer-the-free-marke... and his attitude towards Estonia and the US stimuli, I think there is some doubt as to his work.

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#6

Post by Avshalom » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:40 PM UTC

46Bit wrote: post #4

I'd say this is spot on, but the question is that of whether paying off the vast majority of the debt is even possible. In the USA especially, I've long since concluded it simply cannot happen. Look at how much bickering the Republicans and Democrats have over even relatively minor issues. $10^9 is one 15-thousandth of the national debt and there's fights about such amounts.

Well it's entirely possible for a sufficiently reckless administration to pay off the debt tomorrow if they felt like it. The mint is allowed to make arbitrary denomination currency, they could mint a X-trillion dollar coin and pay off the debt with it if they felt like it.

But they'd probably get shot for doing it.

That said no, the article is not spot on. In any state where the government is a significant part of the employment/economy the government cutting spending is just going to keep money and jobs out of the economy.

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#7

Post by jellicle » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:45 PM UTC

For perspective: the author of this piece is a right-wing ideologue who has called for eliminating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and all income taxes on the rich.

Not sure what this piece has to do with Hacker News either.

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#8

Post by joejohnson » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:46 PM UTC

>>If young Americans knew what was good for them, they would all be in the Tea Party.

Hahaha.

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#9

Post by Clotho » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:48 PM UTC

Why should anyone welcome a system - be it austerity or extend and pretend where they or their children pay to line the pockets of the 1%?

I understand that the BBC is the voice of the state, but OP, how could you consider anything other than the Iceland solution to be the correct course?

Re: Why the young should welcome austerity

#10

Post by twelvechairs » Sun, Jun 17, 2012, 11:50 PM UTC

Is it just me, or does he not actually make a case for austerity here? He makes a case for the government balancing its books, but there are other ways (such as higher taxes and defaults) which are hardly touched on here.

I've seen Niall Ferguson's TV series (the ascent of money etc.) which are quite good, but this article seems dangerously ideological to me.