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| Bleeding Gipsies |
Alright, time
for Master Alfred to explain a thing or two in simple terms to the
undereducated lot of you. I am aware that you know barely anything of economic
‘science’, dear readers; and that you understand even less of the fiscal and monetary
carnage that is presently being perpetrated upon Europe. And who can blame you?
It is bloody well easier to follow the tactical motions of the 30 Year War than
to grasp the insane manoeuvring of the brutes and yokels that pretend to be our
present national and supra-national leadership.
However, Master
Alfred – who is the author of such outstanding studies as ‘Taking a Crowbar to
Keynes’ and ‘The Bonfires of Bretton Woods’ – understands a lot of economics,
and with a shortcut or two and a grain of salt shaken over the witches’ brew,
he can make it pretty easy for you all to understand.
Lesson 1
addresses some very simple questions: ‘Why does the Austerity Shock treatment
as applied to the GIPSY Countries (1) over the last four years not work? Why
does it have the exact reverse effect of that which Our Masters promised? Why
does it cause unemployment and contraction of the economy, although we
were assured it would bring us jobs and growth?’
Well, to
answer that I must first confront you with a scandalous statement. Here goes:
if you look at it closely, there is solid logic to the stark conservative
policies known variously as Thatcherism, Reaganism, Chicago School, neo-con
economics or old time liberalism. That logic runs as follows: We must chop back
government spending, so that we may lower taxes, which will result in increased
consumption by family households and greater investments by private business.
This in turn fuels the economy and will therefore create jobs and generate
growth.
Now, one may
raise all sorts of objections against this tenet, but one thing must be
admitted: if done correctly and consistently, such a line of action will have a
benign effect on the state of a free market economy.
So why, may
you ask, does the Thatcherism forced upon the Gipsy countries by Brussels and
its Abominable Troika not work? Well, pretty simple, dear children: because
Brussels’ neuro-con policies never get around to lowering taxes. On the
contrary. The sums saved by the mammoth cuts in government spending in
countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain do not end up in the pockets of
private households and businesses, but are siphoned off only and exclusively to
pay interest over past loans to mostly foreign lenders. As the government
decreases its own investment in the national economy (thus causing business to
fold and workers to be fired), the money it saves leaves the country, having no
beneficial effect on local economic activity whatsoever. And since folding
businesses and unemployed workers generate less revenue than before, the
desperate government has no other choice than the RAISE taxes on an already
poorer productive sector. This is what they all have done, by raising VAT drastically
and by inventing all sorts of new dues and taxes and duties to be paid by
consumers and producers.
A lethal,
downward spiral is thus set in motion, to which there is no end in sight. See
Greece, which is not getting out of the mire, but sinks ever deeper into the
quicksand of Brussels’ policy.
For many
decades now, conservatives the world over used to censure left-wing parties for
their Tax-and-Spend proposals. But look at what our Neuro-Cons are doing now!
It can only be qualified as Tax-and-Smother! It is truly the worst of both
worlds, the toxic combination of the defects of both respectable philosophies:
left wing taxation with right wing stinginess.
If anybody
thinks a recipe like this will work, he must be a true ass, or a well-paid
European Beurocrat with a hidden agenda, or both. And it is high time that this
be recognized. Do not blame the Krauts, ye Spaniards! Do not blame the
Pepper-bellies, ye Germans! Blame those who gave you the Divine Euro and are
now blitzing your Freedoms and your Prosperity!
(1) I.e.
Ireland and the lands around the Mediterranean. These are usually designated by
the vicious term PIGS (an acronym for Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain). I
much prefer the term GIPSY, since that gives us a far more valid figure of
speech: countries which often live hand-to-mouth, are not always on their best
behaviour, but are much more maligned than they deserve out of hateful petty
bourgeois prejudice.
