That is true enough Mike.
But like many nations in this state right now for the most part it is not the average citizen that is at fault for the economic mess they are being asked to foot the bill for but a corrupt banking system that racked up the debt in the first place.
The nut shell description is like not being invited to a party but being given the bill for it.
As for Spain when you hit 25% young adult unemployment you have a serious problem on your hands and austerity will not help the situation.
The party is over and the bill has to be paid but instead of bailing out the people it is the banks that got the bail out and the bill paid, the people have been made to suffer so the wealthy can arrange another party.
Anyway we both know this end of things so no argument here.
Yes the tab has to be settled but my problem is who is being made to settle it.
I agree with this, but its not always as simple as it seems.
I agree the people who ran the banks should be held accountable, but in many cases the bank itself got bailed out because if they had been allowed to sink, they would have taken the mum and dad depositors life savings with them.
The collapse of even a single well known brand of bank, can cause a run on the others, people withdrawing their savings, which in turn creates a cascade effect even greater than the original root cause problem.
Most people dont concern themselves with Govt spending, they dont protest when one spends money on schools, roads, hospitals. They dont ask
where is the money coming from ?
Its human nature to take the path of least resistance, we see this with personal credit cards.
The desire for gratification overides, the logic of knowing you cant afford to run up more debt.
Whats happening in spain is a result of public spending
Concerns over the country's public finances were evident earlier Wednesday
Thats debt by the people for the people
Spain's government was hit by the country's financial crisis on two fronts on Tuesday as protestors enraged with austerity cutbacks and tax hikes clashed with police near Parliament while the nation's borrowing costs increased in an auction of its debt.
The formula is pretty simple, public services cost money. Tax pays for these services, where the cost of the service is greater than the tax income, the difference is borrowed.
So the fix is austerity, services must be cut. Less public transport , less public services. and at the same time tax hikes to pay for the debt already incurred on behalf of the populace.
By the cold logic of the budget spread sheet, there is no other way.
Whats the alternative to austerity ?, just keep spending and let the next generation pay for the lifestyle we enjoy today.
Basic infrastructure like bridge repairs, is in some countrys being paid for now on the projected tax income of people who havent even been born yet.
People have known this for decades, but it was easier to turn a blind eye in order to get that bridge fixed now.
In spain people are blaming the Govt.
Angry Madrid marchers who got as close as they could to Parliament, 250 meters (yards) away, yelled "Get out!, Get out! They don't represent us! Fire them!"
"The only solution is that we should put everyone in Parliament out on the street so they know what it's like," said Maria Pilar Lopez, a 60-year-old government secretary.
Lopez and others called for fresh elections, claiming the government's hard-hitting austerity measures are proof that the ruling Popular Party misled voters when it won power last November in a landslide.
What they want is a Govt who will spend
more money, and take
less tax from them. But thats just kicking the problem down the road for the next generation.
Reach not to the drowning man for in the desperation to survive his own immediate ordeal, he may pull us under with him. Out of selfish necessity, he cares not for his potential rescuers. Survival is his primary objective, at any cost. We may pay the price, becoming the sacrifice that he is willing to make in order to survive another day.
Panic has overtaken his perceptions, and biological selfishness his objectivity; he has returned to the primal state of being. He is an animal, and far from civilized or consequential about his actions.
He flails through life, always caught in life's undertow. He is without consequences or consideration; his actions motivated by a need to to live through this one day with no interest in learning to swim.
In reaching out to help him, our reward may be that we ourselves are pulled under and drowned. It's an inadvertant trap. My advice is to throw him a rope, but don't tie it around your neck.
This is basic human nature, these people are reacting to the biological neccesity of today, austerity is a recognition of the logical results that tomorrow will bring.
You cannot have your cake and eat it as well, but thats precisely humans nature to seek.
The only formula that can work is income=spending. Add debt to that and you can only sustain it for so long, and then that debt must be paid.
The trouble is where people recognise personal debt, public debt is harder to take responsibility for.
They voted for the politicians who promised better services, more frequent public transport timetables, voted for the party that promised lower taxes, and better services.
Now they are screaming for more of the same, more services not less, less taxes not more.
The debt component in this process is swept under the rug.
The sad fact is the political process uses public debt to buy votes. a country can and should run with a budget surplus, not a deficit.
But people will always vote with what they get in mind, and not what it costs