Anne Applebaum: For the U.S., Britain's Austerity is a Foreign Concept
[Anne Applebaum writes a column for the WaPo.]
"Vicious cuts." "Savage cuts." "Swingeing cuts." The language that the British use to describe their new government's spending reduction policy is apocalyptic in the extreme....
And the British love it....
Austerity...has a deep appeal. Austerity is what made Britain great. Austerity is what won the war. It cannot be an accident that several British television channels are running programs this year with titles such as "Spirit of 1940," all dedicated to the 70th anniversary of that "remarkable year" of rationing, air raid sirens and hardship....
... The last period of real national hardship Americans might remember is the 1930s, too long ago for almost everyone alive today. But rationing in Britain lasted well into the 1950s, long enough to color the childhoods of many politicians now in power. Nostalgic Brits, longing to re-create their country's finest hour, remember postwar scrimping and saving. Nostalgic Americans in search of their own country's finest hour remember postwar abundance, the long consumer boom -- and, yes, a time when even instant gratification wasn't fast enough.
Read entire article at WaPo
"Vicious cuts." "Savage cuts." "Swingeing cuts." The language that the British use to describe their new government's spending reduction policy is apocalyptic in the extreme....
And the British love it....
Austerity...has a deep appeal. Austerity is what made Britain great. Austerity is what won the war. It cannot be an accident that several British television channels are running programs this year with titles such as "Spirit of 1940," all dedicated to the 70th anniversary of that "remarkable year" of rationing, air raid sirens and hardship....
... The last period of real national hardship Americans might remember is the 1930s, too long ago for almost everyone alive today. But rationing in Britain lasted well into the 1950s, long enough to color the childhoods of many politicians now in power. Nostalgic Brits, longing to re-create their country's finest hour, remember postwar scrimping and saving. Nostalgic Americans in search of their own country's finest hour remember postwar abundance, the long consumer boom -- and, yes, a time when even instant gratification wasn't fast enough.