Austerity not the best policy

This is in response to Mr. Tom Frampton’s response to my original letter. While I appreciate Mr. Frampton’s enthusiasm for the subject, I fear he leapt to a few telling conclusions.

First, I work for a major bank.

Second, the thrust of the argument was twofold: austerity is not a one-size-fits-all solution to a down economy, and the zeal to cut public sector jobs and salary has an air of vengeance more than sound policy. The public sector didn’t invent mortgage-backed securities or move jobs overseas. We want someone to blame for the state of things, and for lack of a real culprit we’ll settle for whoever is nearby.

Third, neither party is going to tackle the debt through cuts alone. Yes, cuts do need to be made, but as part of a larger, more complicated strategy. We’ve been told costs we cut today never cost us more later, no matter their source; that it costs us nothing to let people fall off unemployment, to skimp on education and research, to ignore decaying infrastructure.

There is nothing innovative or sustainable about running as cheaply in the short term as we possibly can. At this point lost public sector jobs are just more people on unemployment and less money going back into businesses. Job creators tend to not create jobs if nobody’s spending money on their services. This, of course, would be paired with a decline in public service quality from said job losses, at least until we can make snow plows drive themselves.

I said before that if someone offers you a deal, inspect the merchandise. The economy presents expensive and complex problems. Austerity is a cheap and unsophisticated solution. It will not save us this time.

John Boske Jr.

Bartlett