About as realistic a depiction of Ireland as you’re likely to get from the Washington Post. (Photo: Dave Landis)
If you read enough Paul Krugman columns, you know that there are politicians—in this country and elsewhere—who continue to assert that the best way to turn around slumping economies is to slash government spending. The problem, as Krugman has written countless times, is that there’s no evidence that this works in the real world—and plenty of evidence that it does not.
But the austerity backers persist nonetheless. And sometimes the message comes not from political leaders or opinion journalists but from news reporters. Washington Post correspondent Howard Schneider took another turn with his March 14 piece, “Is Ireland an Economic Example or an Exception for the Euro Zone?”
His lead told you where this was headed:
In Europe’s grand battle over growth vs. austerity, has Ireland proved that austerity works?
The only evidence Schneider had was that Ireland “successfully sold longer-term government bonds Wednesday.” While that’s better news, it’s hard to say this is going to settle this argument any time soon.
Ireland’s major economic problem, as economist Dean Baker pointed out in a response to this piece, is massive unemployment, currently at around 14.7 percent—”still 10 full percentage points above the pre-recession level.” Schneider doesn’t ignore this, exactly; he writes that the “economy is growing—slowly—despite a regional recession. Employment and foreign investment are rising.”
There’s perhaps slight movement in reducing Ireland’s unemployment rate—but nothing you’d confuse with good news. And Ireland’s growth is hardly good news, either. (See this Irish Times headline today: “Irish Economy to Be Flat in 2013: Irish GDP Growth Downgraded From 1 to 0.1 Percent in Ernst & Young Euro Zone Forecast.”)
So why is Schneider telling this story? That’s hard to say, but he has some history. In January he wrote a piece warning that France should consider slashing workers’ pay in order to be competitive, just like Spain had done. This is remarkably weird advice, considering the state of their respective economies: France’s unemployment rate is 10.5 percent, while Spain’s is 26.6.
Spain slashed spending in response to the economic collapse, and its population has suffered the consequences. For people like Schneider, though, austerity still seems to always be the answer.
Austerity will always be “the answer” for those who just waiting to steal another couple of million, because they are too stupid to be able to live on any amount of money; hence they have to talk everyone into giving up theirs so they can spend it.
They are the people who need to practice severe austerity.
This reminds of the people are Morbidly Obese (the 400 lb bunch) who will gladly eat their meal, your meal, your other friends meals and 5 tables worth of meals, and then complain that ‘they didn’t get enough and are still hungry’. And if you don’t give em all your meal, they get angry and call you ‘greedy’.
Maybe we can make a new title for the ones who think austerity is the only way (for everyone else but them), we can call them Morbidly Stupid.
The unemployment rate is falling because people are emigrating, not because they’re finding work.
No surprise here. Corporate media subscribes to the “if you tell a lie long enough…” mantra, after all.
The truth is, if you slash pay enough, it wont help much. A company will only hire so many excess people to stand around in the west. Hiring is based on needs, not wants.
Second, you either have the employer pay a livable wage or the government subsidise the person. This is what we need to remember.
In the US only 1/4th of the min wage workforce are people 19 and under. Many of the others depend on that job as a first income or a second, or a third, and the gov is likely helping them either way because min wage isnt enough and ours is already flatlined for too long compared to inflation.
So all those asking to get rid of min wage, to slash pay, just remember whos picking up the tab.
Talk about asking for big gov.
Hi, I am an Irish song writer living in Dublin. The campaign against the Austerity measures (EG: Home and Water Tax) is gaining momentum all the time, as people here are falling under the weight of the taxes now being set. Property tax has been introduced when at the same time we have over 90,000 homes in mortgage arrears!
I have written a song about our plight. It’s called ‘Paper people’
And you can see the video for it here:
Yes the song and dance used in other countries to bring the bad ole people to their knees after capitalist malfeasance destroyed their countries as stated in The Shock Doctrine”, is finally being questioned. Now to bring its devious supporters to their knees and we will have really done something.
@ Padremellyrn
Are you sure all over weight people will call you greedy if you don’t give them your food? My mom was overweight (had 7 children by listening to the instructions of the Catholic Church) and in her depression overate, but we all ate before she did and not a peep out of her if there were little left for her. There is some “fault” to be had when we overeat, but I’ve never meet the type that demanded my food. I hate comparisons of over weight people to people truly doing horrible things to others. Most overweight people mostly do damage to themselves and not others. And with their esteem problems they probably kick themselves harder than you would anyway.
Padremellyrn, you really need to educate yourself about obesity, though your ignorance can perhaps be partly forgiven, considering the misinformation about the topic in the media. Many of “the 400-pound bunch” cannot help it that they are obese. Many have serious physiological problems that either cause their obesity to begin with, or make it next to impossible to lose weight. That is true in fact, for many of the 200-lb and 300-lb bunch, too. To compare these people with the greedy money- and power-mongers in our world is offensive and simply wrong.