Austerity measures have they ever saved an economy?

Thread Title Asks writes:Austerity measures have they ever saved an economy?

RobS writes:Everyone seems to think capitalism is the enemy...

RobS writes: On a side note, if in america you keep saying 'In god we trust', then god needs to be taxed more than everyone else.

RobS on China writes: read post properly...both are now cow-towing to their capitalist opponents by introducing capitalism into their NON Laissez-faire economies...and guess what?, ever since they made this move their economies are beginning to thrive.

RobS writes: While I'd have to agree with you that infrastructure does make the process workable it is with the caveat mentioned before and that is that true austrian models have never existed, therefore we've had an opportunity to demonstrate that infrastructure building is not only possible in austrian terms but highly cost effective and innovative.

RobS writes: If a proprietary interest is involved any hold up, wastage or negligence gets punished immediately.

RobS writes: Inefficiency is not an indictment that I level lightly, I don't take pleasure in pummelling the government, but as a businessman I can guarantee that the best way to improve anyones' productivity is to make it contingent on proprietary reward (interest). If you offer the right incentives then people will do their very best, otherwise they will always seek the path of least resistance.

RobS writes: As mentioned before limited Gov has utility as long as it is 'limited' to the bare essentials, including national defence, education, law & order (incl. protection of property) & limited monetary control.

RobS writes: Capitalism sprung out of feudalism as a reaction to not being allowed the chance to thrive, it is the natural bedmate of the enlightenment values, Thomas Paine was it's best advocate, but sadly his dream has not yet come to fruition.

RobS writes: Everywhere you find capitalism you find freedom, and to the extent you find capitalism you find the same degree of freedom.

Crash writes:And it's highly likely that, by the time China has such a population of skilled, highly-trained knowledge workers, living standards and the GDP of China will have risen to the point where it's not actually much cheaper to hire them.

Ramoss writes:While it has been sourced to India, the idea that it is 'very good' is quite incorrect.

Ramoss writes:It's cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Ramoss writes:The problem is the turn over in those jobs is so great, the people aren't properly trained.

Will Hutton writes:China, as I once was memorably told by a group of lawyers in Beijing, is a volcano waiting to explode. It is difficult for those not familiar with the country to comprehend the scale of corruption, the waste of capital, the sheer inefficiency, the ubiquity of the party and the obeisance to hierarchy that is today's China. The mass of Chinese are proud and pleased with what has been achieved since Deng Xiaoping began the era of the "socialist market economy". But there is a widespread and growing recognition that the authoritarian model has to change, a fact that every disaster dramatises.The railway ministry is a classic example. It is a state within a state, making its own rules and with its own well-honed, corrupt hierarchy commanding unquestioning obedience. Charged with building 9,000 miles of high-speed rail by 2020, as well as developing an allegedly indigenous high-speed rail capability better than Japan's or Europe's, it has pulled all the familiar levers to achieve its task. Huge loans from state-owned banks, directed to lend to the ministry in effect for free, have been thrown at the project. Technology has been purloined and stolen from abroad. Productivity, efficiency and safety are secondary to two overwhelming needs: to complete the network fast, so creating crucially needed jobs, and to be able to boast that China's capability is cheaper than anybody else's.To win the lush contracts, officials' palms have to be liberally greased. Rail minister Liu Zhijun, architect of the high-speed rail plan, was suspended pending a corruption investigation in February. Nor is there is any open system to see whether the technologies actually function properly. There is no back-up for any systems failures, because there is no structure of accountability or any penalties if there are mistakes. The only excuse has been that until now the system has delivered. But Japan's bullet train has been operating for nearly 50 years without a single death. Now China has 39 on its hands with a system only four years old.It also has 10,000 kms of high-speed rail already built whose economics depends on the trains being full. But nobody trusts the technology or the integrity of the officials running the system. The government promises a full inquiry, but nobody has any faith it will be anything else than a fix. China is discovering that a sophisticated knowledge economy operating at the frontiers of technology is incompatible with an authoritarian one-party state.China, we are endlessly told by its apologists, is different. The values of the European Enlightenment — tolerance, the health of dissent, the rule of law, freedom of expression, pluralism — are not needed here. Wenzhou is one more bitter reminder; human pain and human instincts for accountability are universal. Moreover, they are the essential underpinnings of the good economy and society. There will be a Chinese Spring. And sooner than anyone expects.

X writes:Perhaps the UK has a better way of screening the applicants.

X writes:We actually have programming jobs advertised here for No Money! And people take them!!