Greece and Italy have instituted austerity measures. This means pulling back government dollars, laying off workers and "belt tightening".
In the United States the media has been spouting "austerity" for the past three years.
This has resulted in high unemployment, high foreclosure rates and a decrease in spending from the average citizen.
It hasn't however, resulted in a decreasing income for Wall Street , bankers, and for profit corporations- megabucks CEO's, a 300% plus disparity in income from their workers.
Our politicians seem to be doing just fine with corporate donations , PAC support at all time highs.
The average citizen spends less, makes less, eats less meat, forgoes vacations and holidays, budgets without money, worries about rising costs of fuel and food.
I never agreed with George Bush but on this I do. People need to spend to get the economy going. Businesses can cut back employees, develop part time jobs without benefits and find hundreds of ways to get money to their stockholders, but eventually, not in the too far off future even those austerity measures, ( based on greed) will implode. You can only keep what you get.
If you don't get, you don't get to keep.
People will cut back on the extras first. Dining out. Gambling. Big screen TV's. Video games, washers and dryers, big expenses.
When we don't have it to spend, we can't spend it.
It seems pretty foolish for stockholders to de-invest in the communities which feed them for short term gains. Invest in jobs and the economy will begin to improve, people will have money to spend.
Continue to be greedy, take the short term money and run, and as we are already seeing, businesses go bankrupt, everyone loses, and the spiral continues.
Suck the livelihood out of people and no one is left to feed the 1% but the 1%.
Isn't that called cannibalism?
