re: #244 Obdicut

There’s no such thing as a workable austerity program.

There’s plenty of room for wise spending— like spending on food stamps, which gives back into the economy, or spending on science research, which likewise feeds back into the economy. There’s plenty of room for spending money well and wisely, but simply cutting back spending in the middle of a recession is, and always will be, foolish.

Many, unfortunately, never ask themselves what happens next. Say you cut, as we have here in the US, the food for mothers with children program. What actually happens? What is the real result?

The government saves the cost of the program. The mothers then burden it, or their parents do, or whoever else can. Mostly, of course, they can’t, and so the food dollar is stretched ever more. Less food is bought— which means less money goes to the local grocery, less money goes to the farmer. She may skimp on something else— cell phone service that helps her find work or organize child care, clothes for the kids, a dentist visit, a doctor’s visit. The children, slightly malnourished, may learn a little slower, might be more tired in class, may develop problems that require medical attention down the road.

Meanwhile, the government has saved the cost of that program; but that same government is going to inherit those problems. The problems of the very poor are always going to be the problems of the government. The problem does not disappear when the spending does. The problem remains.

There’s this odd illusion that the government spends lots of money in this profligate fashion, and that that’s what we’re cutting. The truth is that to identify actual wasteful spending is a time-consuming and, ironically, costly job. So when spending is cut, it tends to be in broad swathes— education, care for the elderly, environmental enforcement— and the results of those cuts are very often costs down the line.

Government should not follow the whim of the market; government should be a bulwark against the boom and bust cycle. What we’re seeing now is this odd philosophy that the government should only spend when the economy is booming— when such spending is least needed. It’s a rather bizarre inversion.

France and Germany and other European countries have cut spending. Austerity, couples with wise spending, is the only permanent solution to this debt crisis.

We have to earn more than we spend.