Yes, for nothing left to lose. Funny how things work in pairs. Hollywood likes a pairing. Think of Mission To Mars and Red Planet; Leviathan and The Abyss; Armageddon and Deep Impact; Democrat and Republican… On that note, the best political movie I can think of at the moment is The Candidate. “Best” being superlatively subjective, I’ll note that there is a scene in the hotel that is not commented on in the script, which reminds me just a bit of the John Edwards debacle. But it’s subtle, especially for contemporary caffeinated folks weaned on the fast image, rewarding the observant viewer. See for yourself.
Pairs, I was getting at. Or pairings. Or paring. OK, for real now, austerity.
These austerity programs will not last long.
Expect to see Greece, Romania, France, Germany, and the UK all scale back, abandon, or stretch out austerity plans when the global economy does a second half relapse under the weight [of] $trillion in consumer debt and round after round of “stimulus” measures that did little but rack up still more debt.
Mike Shedlock referring to the recent bout of austerity measures instituted by governments. The race is on for ____? It’s hard not to wonder what the endgame is here. If citizens aren’t employed and can’t spend, then how can other jobs be sustained? That is one line of questioning that itself is often not questioned. As Walter Block notes,
The argument is plausible except for a crucial point that this Keynesian-inspired argument fails to take into account – the possibility of changes in prices.
Blond’s so-called Red Tories, which he discusses more here, aren’t going to bother with such economic details because communitarianism will somehow not need them. Have these state conservatives communitarians not looked in the definitional mirror lately? It makes me smile that this word is nothing but the wolf of control in the sheep’s clothing of neighborliness. But then, liberals are not liberal, nor conservatives conservative, smarting on that thorn, semantics. But these words have no objective meaning anyway — see the above long listing of what communitarianism is. We can say, along with Isabel Paterson, “when we say free speech, we mean free speech”, but we don’t always use “liberal” to mean “free”, or “conservative” to mean “prudent”, say… but these synonyms aren’t settled either. So, back to community, back to use. And back to getting on, or off, track.
Now there’s a metaphor. It’s not good for a train to jump its rails, and so on. I’m starting to meander. Aha, we don’t want to be a river, but only (like) something of our own invention. Since like a river I have no point but to ferry myself along — or is the water not the river? — rather absurd. But not this: help out your neighbors, and then, leave them alone. Sadly, the latter course is not part of the austerity plan. I’m no scholar, but if countries were left alone, had their own currency, had to default, had to restructure, the pain would not be nearly as bad as being saddled with more and more bailout debt which their economies cannot possibly pay off in their shoddy states.
UK Manifesto:
Austerity — Service to Your Community,
Political Correctness, No Disunity:
“…Time for Next Phase of Scripted Sentence,
Communitarianism, Austerity and Interdependence,
…Practice Austerity, Serve and Chip-In,
…Work with Solidarity Until Each Sunset,
In a Thousand Years, You’ll Pay Off the Debt’ ”
***Dialogue Copyrighted Alan Watt – May 19, 2010
(This reminds me of Javert, by the way. I’m still wrestling with that scene.)