Thinking About: The Age of Austerity



I have lost count of the number of times the phrase ‘Age of Austerity’ has been mentioned by politicians and commentators recently. It’s as if they have all received the same script in the post and are simply reading from it. It has become the default phrase to describe the mess we’re in. Of course the ironic bit is that the people who caused this present financial fiasco will feel little or any of its effects. Bonuses are back in style. Some of the very people who are responsible for the world-wide banking failures will be getting a bonus this year which exceeds what many of my readership receive in their salaries over 20 years. Of course, we are told rather patronisingly, we have to pay them their huge salaries, bonuses and perks because they, the noble few, will pull us out of the recession they created with their ingrained entrepreneurial spirit – bless them! Where as we, at the bottom of any particular totem pole, are told to get on with consuming (or saving or both) to provide the cash that they will use, for the good of us all, to build a better world. Of course their will be a modicum of pain in the process of getting to this economic Promised Land. There will be unemployment, spending cuts, hardship and despair but, as we are regularly told on TV, we’re all in this together – though it appears that some are more in it (the shit that is) than others who drive past it in their limousines.


Presently it appears that those within the Anglo-American axis are taking it lying down. Not so our Continental friends who are protesting, rioting and burning cars in the streets. You have to admire the French (in particular) and the Greeks. They certainly know how the throw a riot – and the odd petrol bomb. You can’t say that they’re taking events lightly. No, sir! They are not following the orders of their betters and falling on their collective swords in the name of economic solidarity. They have singularly failed to grasp that for the rich and shameless to maintain their necessary lifestyles that some (OK quite a lot) of peasants must fall by the wayside. It is the way of things after all. For the rich to stay rich, or if possible get richer, the poor must stay poor and do what they’re bloody well told to do. We Brits have been know to go for the odd riot ourselves, but the most famous tend to be way back in our history – the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834), the Peterloo Massacre (1819) as well as the much more contemporary Poll-Tax riot (1990). Until fairly recently we would have written a strongly worded letter to the Times or our MP. These days we are more likely to whinge about things to our neighbours – if we talk to them – or in the pub over copious pints of cheap watery beer.


In many ways I am in a rather privileged position. My job is fairly safe for the next 2 years or so until the project I’m working on finishes. I own my own house which is presently ‘worth’ much more than I paid for it. I have money in the bank and could, if things took a decided turn for the worst, probably live on my savings – yes, I’m one of those strange people who saves money at the end of each month – for 6 months without getting into debt with the banks. Things should be much better by the time I could be looking for another job. The cycle of boom and bust moves ever onwards. Of course it should be back to the ‘bustier’ side of things when I’m coming up to retirement in 10 years or so. Knowing the likelihood of that it might be a good investment – whilst I actually have money – to start buying gold and burying it in my garden. It’s the prudent thing to do in these uncertain and austere times.