It appears that the populations of France and Greece have voted for 'an end to austerity,, which is somewhat akin to turkeys voting for Christmas. This is, perhaps, an analogy which is a little unfair to the turkeys.
The financial woes currently besetting much of the western world are largely a result of the unrestrained supply of credit that was made available to both governments and individuals over many years, but at a vastly accelerating rate in the decade leading up to the crash of 2008. We therefore have far too much money available compared to the real value of the assets which this money is supposedly based on. In short, the people of the western world have been living the high life on a huge mountain of debt, and this had to come to an end.
For anyone to suggest that we should now borrow even more to 'create jobs and growth' is lunacy. What we, France, Greece and all the rest have to recognise is that we are not as well off as we believed; we have to accept that there needs to be a redressing of the balance and we must all accept being poorer than hitherto.
The consequences aren't nice but they are inevitable. One way or another, austerity is the answer and trying to argue otherwise is sticking one's head in the sand. There is only one choice - austerity and hard times now, or a major depression in 5 years time; it seems that Greece and France may be heading for the second option, but let's hope the rest of Europe, including ourselves, doesn't follow them.
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