I note my blog on the costs of cutting government spending has appeared on the Compass blog.
Excellent.
The madness of thinking that government cuts will reduce borrowing in the middle of a recession / depression is madness — and has to be challenged time and time and time again.
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Richard,
But surely there are some government cuts that could be made with little adverse effects. As Desmond Tutu was saying on the Today programme this morning, it is obscene that the EU gives a subsidy of $2.50 per cow per day in the EU while billions of humans survive on less than half of that.
You would (and it may surprise you that I would agree), no doubt, prefer the cattle subsidy to be redirected to the world’s poor (which would also have the benefit of increasing milk and beef prices and thus making people pay a fair price for the environmental damage caused by livestock – and no, I’m not a vegetarian). But the point is surely that while this sort of obscene waste exists it is very hard for governments to pretend their spending is necessary, justifiable, useful or even moral. I bet it almost all goes to farmers who are already rich.
Absolutely – public services buy goods and services from the private sector. Why don’t people get it?
I agree with you, Charlie, an economy needs both buyers and sellers to function. It’s no good thinking that it is just the sellers who are essential.
Thanks James. I’m pretty confident that it would be a disaster to cut spending in the middle of a recession would lead to more private sector job losses.