Public Austerity Agenda Failing Worldwide. Big Surprise.

While Republicans often sight Greece, Ireland and England for their economic woes, falsely blaming their social safety nets, they also ignore why these countries continue to have problems; counterproductive austerity measures. Remember, the banks were irresponsible ones and needed the public’s money to prevent their total collapse. So the “neo-liberal” thinking that got us into this economic trouble, thanked the public for the bailouts by asking them to give up everything else for the greater corporate good.

This is the inside stuff that normally doesn’t make the Atlantic leap . This is also the stuff Republicans use to unjustly bash social safety nets while ignoring the failure of austerity measures abroad. Wisconsin's austerity measures, including cuts in pay and benefits for the greater good, have mirrored some European countries. We didn't have to lead the nation in job losses to know Scott Walker's austerity solution isn't working. Check out this summation from Counterpunch:

Economic Domino Theory. Capitalista Virus: by ROBERT HUNZIKER

One of the great contradictions of modern day nation-state socio-economics is how and why capitalists continue getting away with sticking average working people with their mistakes. Capitalists receive fees and interests payments for/on issuance of debt by countries and average working people fund the resulting debt crises, bailing out capitalists…  this is the “Capitalista Virus.”

When nation-states crash and burn from excessive debt, neoliberals oversee the austerity plans, a la Ireland, Portugal, and Greece; they (neoliberals) open wide the vistas for private interests to capture public assets whilst workers sweep up the messy streets.

Ireland, for example, since undergoing a $90B bailout in 2010, continues to struggle after agreeing to austerity cuts for ordinary citizens; nurses, professors and other public sector employee’s salaries were cut 20%. Taxes were increased on housing and water. This year the government is enacting additional cuts to health care and programs for children. The average worker in Ireland is reeling, cutting way back to bare bones on normal purchases of goods and services, which, in turn, softens final sales as registered in Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”), a vicious cycle that spirals downwards, not upwards.

Ireland’s Third Quarter Gross National Product fell 2.2% mainly due to falling personal consumption and calling into question the imposed austerity program. The country’s economy has been in a recession ditch now for three years.

According to a NY Times article d/d December 5, 2011, “…the Irish example shows the dangers of taking from ordinary people to pay off creditors rather than sharing the burden more broadly.”
The Occupy Dame Street movement in front of the Irish Central Bank is focused on this dichotomy whereby bondholders didn’t share in Irish banks’ loses that were assumed by taxpayers.

Meanwhile, on the Continent, in Lisbon, mid February 2012, 100,000-to-300,000 people packed Lisbon’s Palace Square rallying against austerity plans crafted by the EU/IMF last May.