Pete, we keep keep going round in circles with this subject.
1) It isn't either /or. It is possible to cutback on waste and efficiency, and still grow your economy.
2) Austerity isn't causing the problems in Greece and so on, its the problems in Greece and so on thats causing austerity. The fact that the counties are almost bankrupt, how would you suggest they pay their bills without some sort of austerity.
3) If you think "Merkels austerity" is failing, how come Germany has one of the best performing economies in Europe, one of the few that is not in recession, and one of the few, who's not been down-graded. On the news the other night, I saw a report from Germany, since the reunification of east and west, they have been going through severe austerity, with public sector workers not getting a pay rise for over 10 years. Because they took the long term view, and have been prepared to work hard, they should now be benefiting, but instead, are having to bail out the Greeks. In Germany they retire at nearly 70, in Greece, the average is closer to 50.
4) If you think Obama is doing well, you need to take a closer look. Never before has an American president had such a fall from grace, and their economy is limping along. Its widely thought he will lose the next election. Not so long ago, he almost failed to get his budget approved as US debt, mostly owed to the Chinese, hit a trillion dollars.
5) If you think we have austerity in this country, you have fallen for Camerons big lie. Public spending is increasing in lots of areas, and our nations annual bills have fallen by a massive 1% since the coalition cam e to power. Only 1%, hardly savage cuts. Its just that they make front line staff redundant so they can carry on with their own shit like council re-branding schemes.
6) Merkel is wrong in that she is trying to force German principles on other nations such as Greece, when it would be much better in the long run, to let them sort their own mess out. She does this because she ignores economics in favour of a wider political goal of European Union.
7) People are rejecting mainstream politicians, but not because they favour the socialist views of Hollande, in France, it was almost the Far Right that won, and that is also the case in Greece. People aren't against the capitalist system as such, they are rejecting the way mainstream politicians have screwed it up, and failed to fix it for the past four years, so are looking for alternatives.
Topic: The G8 Conference and the current economic crisis (Read 3406 times)