General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How would Americans respond to "Greek like" austerity? [View all]shcrane71
(1,721 posts)As the saying goes, you can't get blood out of turnip. What government services will be denied Americans under austerity measures? Will the number of incarcerated go down? Will Medicaid and Medicare payments decrease? Hell, Americans are used to having bake sales to pay for medicinal services. Most Americans do without preventative medicine. And Grandma and Grandpa have been being convinced that their "quality of life" isn't there any more, and have been dying in droves from morphine "complications" associated with pneumonia -- *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*.
Maybe we'll have to retire later in order to get Social Security. Oh wait, they already raised it to 67 -- many Americans won't make it to this age -- WOOHOO! More money for the rest of us. Maybe we can privatize Social Security? Now there's an austerity measure that Wall Street can get behind! But those poor, poor souls on Wall Street sure have been getting some bad press because they've been a little greedy, and shifty. Pshaw... Greed is Good.
I guess Americans could implement austerity measures on government employees and contracts, but most of those are held by military contractors. The military is a sacred cow... can't touch that.
hmmmm... maybe America could do with spending less on her infrastructure. I mean Detroit and New Orleans have almost been completely decimated. If we just quit repairing bridges, roads, levees, then cities will crumble, burn, and flood, and that's less money we have to spend in trying to keep those cities up.
Maybe the government could cut the earned income tax credit? That should make us poor Americans pay for our upkeep. That'll help. What else could be done to poor Americans (besides NOT providing health care, social services, infrastructure while increasing incarceration rates) to enrich our government? Hell, we get so little from our tax dollars. I'm surprised more Americans aren't emigrating.