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That was the essence of my new year's eve -and you know how annoying it is when you have to conclude that your host is being a git.

What did we have there? Gordon Brown had bankrupted the economy. If he had not let debt accumulate under his watch there would not be the pressure to reduce it now (hello, Spain there? Besides, the UK public debt was not particularly high on the eve of the crisis -private debt was). This was deemed logically undeniable.

There was the idea that the crisis was the making of Brown. Nevermind that it started in a different continent. Also, I know Labour was in power for 13 years, but a policy you failed to repeal is not exactly the same as "your" policy, and certainly not your signature.

Also, it was of course thanks to the reduction in spending that the UK could borrow at a low rate (moning, Japan, how are you?).

No direct spending could have any positive effect since, you see, it would take so long. Uh? What about not firing a teacher, does that take long?

Deep down, they're not bad people, believe me. But they seem to have got religion. My guess from the wording was that they were Torygraph readers. There was a mention of "I have a problem with the New Statesman, I find it too far left".

Anyway... if you argue, it's rude because it's discussing "politics" (I thought I was talking about economics). And if you don't, you help the meme spread. How do you fight a religion indeed?

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Tue Jan 10th, 2012 at 07:17:30 AM EST
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Deep down, that's right. Deep down at the bottom of the sea is where they wouldn't be bad.

Without breathing equipment.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Tue Jan 10th, 2012 at 10:18:42 AM EST
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Steady there. They are, for all their shortcomings, my friends, and I won't take too kindly the suggestion that they be murdered.

What makes someone a bad person? That he wants people to suffer maybe? In that case, your present suggestion (I realise you don't really WANT it) would make you a better candidate than them.

They now live in Woking on an interest only loan, the wife having been given on return from maternity leave a (public sector, no less) position paying 40% less than when she left -they did get hurt by austerity.
And they are rather generous people. They do not like seeing poverty.

The problem is they have been led to believe (something that can happen on both sides of the aisle, John). And so they will promote things that lead to the opposite of what they would like to happen. Does that make them bad or deluded?

Essentially, they believe in markets, "believe" being used in the full religious meaning. So, of course "markets" too becomes an idealised version that bears little ressemblance to the real life. It's a pity that they should be like that, but I can see how easily it can happen if you grow up and live in the UK.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Tue Jan 10th, 2012 at 12:19:36 PM EST
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don't mean to be bad people. But, it doesn't really take much time for one to keep one's self informed, and if one did so, one could see that they consequences of the German-led austerity drive are starting to show up in hospital wards in Greece, in the form of children suffering from malnutrition.

And when people begin to die from the effects of austerity, that is violence too, right? That in and of itself justifies a riposte of similar calibre.

I know what you are saying, these people don't mean for this to be happening, but, in the end, it is. And so...

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Tue Jan 10th, 2012 at 12:24:47 PM EST
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"But, it doesn't really take much time for one to keep one's self informed"

Aye, there's the rub. Most of the sources of information that you find here would strengthen your belief. Which would make you reject even more sources like, well, this one, which scream otherwise.

It takes more effort to keep yourself well informed than just informed. For example, it's a freak coincidence that got me here. Even reading Krugman came from a coincidence (although I would probably have done it a couple of years later, when his name started circulating more).
I take the Eurostar most weeks and have access to the lounge with the newspapers and magazines. You really have to know what you're looking for in order to pick something that you will call "information", though most of them would call themselves so.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Tue Jan 10th, 2012 at 01:35:49 PM EST
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Self-foolery. The proper study of mankind is man in groups, but the pendulum of hyperindividualism has swung so far in the West that the citizenry can't think collectively. So they fail to attend to the electoral process.

All the information necessary for democracy to function has been nominally available since the Greeks partly invented it, but education is neglected.

Austerity is the fault of the heedless.

Align culture with our nature. Ot else!

by ormondotvos (ormond.otvosnospamgmialcon) on Tue Jan 10th, 2012 at 10:22:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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