HEDG Hosts - Clara Mattei on the capital order 

Was this good or bad or indifferent for how they function or dont function at present? My apology in advance... I am an extreme novice ...

The way I see it is that they (those with the wealth and power to dictate such things) tell us (We the People) that austerity is all about keeping spending well within our means, but in reality it's about wealth redistribution, and asset stripping, where the wealth and assets go to those with enough wealth and power to dictate such things.

@@bundleofperceptions1397 Seems about where we are these days. But hey, we get bread and circuses! They inflated my retirement savings away, but at least I can be distracted by them indicting Trump.

...and a phone that cooks your breakfast ☝️😐 - George Carlin

Reduction of government debt is too narrow a definition of austerity, or maybe just too technical a way of defining it. Austerity is the impoverishment of the working class to the benefit of capital owners. That could be through reduction of government spending, but the government literally has the power to throw the economy into a recession and reduce wages and increase unemployment. That's what the Fed is doing right now with its monetary policy, breaking the back of inflation by impoverishing the working class even further. Meanwhile, the government continues to spend billions on the war in Ukraine and on industrial policy for the semiconductor and electric vehicle industries. Spending cuts are selective and targeted at the working class. No Republican ever proposes cutting the military budget. It's the working class that must be disciplined, not the government. In other words, austerity is more than just balancing the budget, it is class war against the working class for the advantage of the capital owning class.

@@jason8434 That’s a political viewpoint, and a rather extreme one. Politicians love to pretend they care about economics, but they rarely ever do.