AUSTERITY---HERE AND NOW

In a recent blog about my recent trip to France, I referred to the French upset and day of strike protesting the proposed change of retirement age from sixty to sixty-two expounded by the President, Nicholas Sarkozy. I have read several analyses of this French rebellion, and one of the common threads of these articles has been the French refusing to face reality. I think this has been a problem for more than the French; it is certainly prevalent in England and in America.

In England, the new coalition government headed by Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative, and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, a Social Democrat, has proposed austerity measures for drastic fiscal belt tightening, the worst since the 1920s in the aftermath of World War I. The unions are up in arms and screaming for "civil disobedience” and strikes to protest and force the government to back off.

In the U.S.A. screams have come from both extremes of our basically two-party system, ranging from decrying government waste (so what else is new?) to exhorting for more governmental expenditures to stimulate the economy. Lots of talk and little action.

Let’s face it: the spectre of austerity is an international problem. It is only magnified by the size of the major world economies, such as the U.S.A. China, Japan, Russia, Germany, England, France, India---you name it. Especially in the major powers we thought the expansion and the good times would go on forever. It is as if we were in the middle of a riotous all-night party and, in our drunken craze, thinking at 3:00 a.m. the party would last forever---and then discovering at a bleary 6:00 a.m. that we were wrong.

Yes, folks, “The party’s over, it‘s time to call it a day…”, as the song says. Things are not the same, and I seriously doubt if they ever will be again. We’ve been greedy; we have not looked beyond tomorrow; we have ignored the lessons of the past. I’m not saying things won’t get better someday, but it is going to take a lot of work, a lot of belt tightening, and a lot of long-term planning and the guts to stay with those long-term plans before that day will come. So now it is time to go to work. Let’s stop bickering long enough to recognize that we need to cooperate for our future wellbeing. In the process we might try showing some tolerance toward others as part of this cooperation.

End of sermon. Austerity is here . Let’s recognize that fact. Let’s live with it. Let’s work together to mend and recover. Amen.