Take a look at this short video sent out by him on his Twitter account.
Austerity doesn’t work. pic.twitter.com/LvKSMvHetI
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 17, 2018
I don’t know if Corbyn was also behind the creation of the video or just tweeted it out.
The only quibble I have with it is that it seems to depict the austerity advocates as well-intentioned but misguided. In reality I think they know exactly what they are doing and that is to shift wealth away from the lower income groups to the rich. All the ‘concern’ about the deficit and growth is just window dressing.
The video, with a few tweaks, would apply well to the US too.
I would agree that the austerity advocates do know what they are doing and that it is to shift as much wealth as possible from the poorer to the very rich. However in a video trying to convince as many people as possible that austerity doesn’t work letting that slide is a pragmatic decision.
@jazzlet:
If anything, letting that slide makes it a stronger argument in some ways: ‘even when done with the best of intentions, austerity still doesn’t work’.
I suspect that some policy makers really do think that austerity will work. There seem to be a lot of orthodox “fresh-water” economists who think this. I, often, get the feeling that given the choice between questioning theory or accepting the contrary results the economist will go with theory.
In other cases, yes it is a method “to shift as much wealth as possible”.
That’s a brilliant video, clearly demonstrating the problem of removing money from the economy in a way comprehensible to non-economists. And I agree with jazzlet that it’s a pragmatic decision, and a good one, to other important elements slide, for the purposes of that particular video.
Further increasing understanding of what’s wrong with austerity unfortunately involves a proper understanding of the nature of sovereign “debt”, which is entirely unlike the personal or corporate debt to which people naturally (but incorrectly) compare it. Without understanding Modern Monetary Theory it’s far from obvious that, with a fiat currency, neither taxation nor issuance of debt has anything to do with funding government activity. (In the main these are tools to regulate inflation and, in the case of issuing government bonds, ensure that demand for saving is met, which is essential to keep sufficient money in the economy to sustain a high level of trade.)
The book DIAGRAMS & DOLLARS: Modern Money Illustrated is an easy (and very cheap) introduction to the basic flows of money in a fiat currency economy.