Austerity Circle
Austerity Circle
“Democracies can't
handle austerity measures very well.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
By: Errreh Svaia
Benjamin
Franklin said: “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise with debt”, and he
is right, I think, first of all, I must say that I do believe in austerity,
right now, in M茅xico, a divorce between the people and the government, apart
from corruption, is happening because of lack of understanding about austerity,
but the austerity I’m talking about is not only applicable to society, it's
applied mainly to government and to the ruling class, we have seen how
politicians spend lots of money on enormous houses, expensive cars and watches,
how the first lady appears as if she was part of a rich European monarchy in
high society magazines, wearing designer clothes and how the president travels
with a committee of 200 people, there is a big disconnection between the life
of politicians in M茅xico and our reality, we as society practice austerity every
day, because we have to, politicians don't, and I am not even sure if they know
what austerity means.
At this moment as citizens, most of us have experimented austerity in one way or another, I remember the Mexican crisis form the 80s, as a kid it meant no travelling on holidays, less toys on the Christmas tree, and second hand comics bought on small markets downtown, as a teenager it meant “to wear the same clothes until they fall apart at the seams”, it meant walking in the rain instead of taking the bus, it meant to buy on second hand stores, it meant asking for someone´s old books instead of buying new ones, as an adult in the 90s, it meant stick with your old car, buy used tires instead of new ones, and watch my mates at the office being fired in order for us “to be more productive”.
At this moment as citizens, most of us have experimented austerity in one way or another, I remember the Mexican crisis form the 80s, as a kid it meant no travelling on holidays, less toys on the Christmas tree, and second hand comics bought on small markets downtown, as a teenager it meant “to wear the same clothes until they fall apart at the seams”, it meant walking in the rain instead of taking the bus, it meant to buy on second hand stores, it meant asking for someone´s old books instead of buying new ones, as an adult in the 90s, it meant stick with your old car, buy used tires instead of new ones, and watch my mates at the office being fired in order for us “to be more productive”.
Now, we
read about austerity in the newspapers and it has gained some notoriety because
of the complex situation happening in Greece, where it has taken a very
different meaning from the one we know, in Germany austerity is practiced
almost like a religion, either in government or among citizens, it’s a cultural
matter and it has worked wonders for a nation torn apart in a war, and then
victim of shock therapy after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it has done some
damage on Portugal, Ireland, Spain and
Italy, but they have managed to come up stronger after the rigorous austerity
implementations.
I believe in austerity when it comes to the government, well paid jobs for those who really deserve it (not for relatives or friends), lean structures (using technology as platform), no corruption and a really reproductive staff, they must do a lot with little, just as we citizens do, this means that we don't need so many people in the government, we need to minimize bureaucracy in order to get more transparency and more simple and agile processes, our government is obese, and in the name of austerity, it needs to go on a diet.
Unfortunately in M茅xico and in some other countries, when we hear about austerity it means high taxes, little public and social spend, which traduces in poor education, poor medical attention, and deceptive public services and security, in the end, that austerity applied fully on citizens pockets means less spend and so the economy stagnates, you can set an economy into motion imposing austerity on the bottom of the pyramid, where the citizen is already stranded, austerity is stagnating European economy, on the other side you can’t channel all your resources on social programs, going to the other extreme may put you in a situation equal to Venezuela or Argentina were lots of things are given for free, and they end spending more than they can earn, you need balance, but austerity must be applied to governments and politics, we need them to do more with less, otherwise we are creating a big elite, ruling class, greedy people with no will to serve anyone but themselves.
In order to break austerity vicious circle, is important to reform our taxing system, it's ok to tax spend, it makes you aware of your finances, it's not ok to tax production, it makes you conformist and harms productivity and innovation, austerity works when it is recognized as a virtue and comes from within, it works when it helps become more creative and productive, when it is applied as punishment for others faults, it gets negative results, we should be aware of how prone is our government to practice austerity and how prone it is to impose austerity to the citizens, in the end, is all about being congruent.
I believe in austerity when it comes to the government, well paid jobs for those who really deserve it (not for relatives or friends), lean structures (using technology as platform), no corruption and a really reproductive staff, they must do a lot with little, just as we citizens do, this means that we don't need so many people in the government, we need to minimize bureaucracy in order to get more transparency and more simple and agile processes, our government is obese, and in the name of austerity, it needs to go on a diet.
Unfortunately in M茅xico and in some other countries, when we hear about austerity it means high taxes, little public and social spend, which traduces in poor education, poor medical attention, and deceptive public services and security, in the end, that austerity applied fully on citizens pockets means less spend and so the economy stagnates, you can set an economy into motion imposing austerity on the bottom of the pyramid, where the citizen is already stranded, austerity is stagnating European economy, on the other side you can’t channel all your resources on social programs, going to the other extreme may put you in a situation equal to Venezuela or Argentina were lots of things are given for free, and they end spending more than they can earn, you need balance, but austerity must be applied to governments and politics, we need them to do more with less, otherwise we are creating a big elite, ruling class, greedy people with no will to serve anyone but themselves.
In order to break austerity vicious circle, is important to reform our taxing system, it's ok to tax spend, it makes you aware of your finances, it's not ok to tax production, it makes you conformist and harms productivity and innovation, austerity works when it is recognized as a virtue and comes from within, it works when it helps become more creative and productive, when it is applied as punishment for others faults, it gets negative results, we should be aware of how prone is our government to practice austerity and how prone it is to impose austerity to the citizens, in the end, is all about being congruent.
Comments
Post a Comment