The Anti-Austerity Crowd

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Fundamental redesign of the currency and monetary system is the only way to really fix the economy.
It's a simple fact that the current system acts as a suppressant to potential rather than a facilitator of it. There are plenty of things it's physically possible for us to so, but we "can't" because our monetary system isn't fit for purpose.

The idea of scarcity makes no sense when we are capable of producing more than enough. The whole concept of people starving in Europe at the same time as massive "surpluses" are thrown away is just fudamentally ridiculous - it genuinely surprises me that more people don't talk about these fundamentals.

"The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled" ~ John Kenneth Galbraith.

You can even show the Bank of England talking about this, yet the topic generates so much cognitive dissonance, that people will say the Bank of England is wrong rather than change their beliefs.

mickydoomsux wrote: »

This kind of frothing-at-the-mouth nonsense is why anti-austerity heads are laughable.

Your point is almost entirely fact-free.

Well done. You managed to contribute nothing and parrot what the rest of your ilk are constantly harping on about.

You forgot to use the phrase "bend over and take it" and you didn't call everyone "sheep" though.

One of the options to the IMF when they came here was to Burn the unsecured bondholders. They chose Austerity.

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Yes.

The fact that the bonds themselves are unsecured doesn't mean that burning the holders will have any less of a negative impact on investor confidence.

He said while many people presumed sovereign defaults were “extremely costly”, this had historically not been the case.

From the IMF

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

The people that protest against austerity. How would they expect Ireland to finance a country crippling government deficit?


I don't get it. Could somebody explain? I've never heard of an alternative solution (that actually makes sense and would work better).

There are numerous alternatives to austerity. The cuts this country has gone through have been savage and in all the wrong areas.

No country has ever taxed its way out of a recession. The government can choose to legislate to introduce real reform and cut out all the bloated inefficiencies in public service bodies. They choose not to do that.


They are not going to do this by cutting the pay of front line staff.

It's very frustrating that people just accept austerity in this country without question. There will be no tax breaks in this years budget either. They will save that for next year with a general election on the horizon.

These are not the policies of good governance. They are the policies of a self-serving body who would rather take medical cards off sick children than even consider looking at the middle management of the HSE.

But yeah, anyone who is anti-austerity is part of a "crowd" or "shower". Here's a question for those pro-austerity. Why does Ireland continue to foster such a crippling budget deficit? In a county of around 4 million people?

hfallada wrote: »

I had a socialist LE candidate at my door this week and I asked him about what was his taxation beliefs. He said a more equaitable tax system and I asked him what he meant by that. He tried to tell me the bottom 20% of society pay more tax than the top 10% of society. He lost it when I told him our tax system is the second most progressive in the world and 50% of workers pay no tax. He also told me class doesnt have to exist(every socialists believe class will always exist and its beneficial to society) and a doctor shouldnt earn more than anyone else in society

Most of these anti-austerity crowd are full on nut jobs, who have no idea how a society function. They believe rich should pay more, but dont realise they pretty much pay all the taxes in society and get very little in return

They pay no tax? I bet they do.

mickydoomsux wrote: »

I never claimed that but your quotes and the article linked have nothing to do with the point we are arguing.

You're trying to have a "GOTCHA!" moment with the wrong information.

It's nothing to do with "Gotcha" All I have said is the IMF got it wrong choosing Austerity. Alot of people in Ireland were of the opinion a default would be crippling all I did was link the ex heads words in regards to that. There were several options Austerity was the wrong one.