Ban the word 'Austerity'

Roger_007

Everyone is talking about 'austerity'. I have no idea what they mean. By any measure most people are better off than they were 10 or 15 years ago. How come nobody mentioned 'austerity' back then. Is it just because people have less money than they did in the hazy crazy days of the 'Celtic Tiger', that any drop in personal wealth is called 'austerity'. The way some people are talking you'd think that the days of the Great Famine had returned and people were dying from hunger in their thousands on the side of the road.
Maybe we should all just get a grip and realise that, while we may not be as well off as we thought we used to be, we are still doing ok by world standards.
I'm sick of the word 'austerity'.

endacl

Jaysus. You used it enough there!

Geuze

I agree.

It should be called "reducing the fiscal deficit", or "reducing Govt borrowing".

wretcheddomain

I think it should be considered an offensive word...like the F word, the C word...

The A word...

Jimminy Mc Fukhead

Jehova.

kneemos

The phrase "austerity measures"I don't get,it measures what,how does it measure...loopy.

goose2005

In economics, austerity describes policies used by governments to reduce budget deficits during adverse economic conditions. These policies may include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of the two. Austerity policies may be attempts to demonstrate governments' liquidity to their creditors and credit rating agencies by bringing fiscal incomes closer to expenditures.

So it has literally nothing to do with personal wealth or income; it's about govt controlling spending. And, OP, it's possibly true that living standards aren't very different from the year 2000 or so, but things like debt, youth unemployment and future prospects are far worse