There is a sense of happiness and comfort while reading about countries with massive public spending on their citizens. It is great to see healthcare for all and social safety nets. What is not great is the IMF constantly making wrong decisions for entire countries. You would think that they would learn from their previous experiences that austerity is not the proper choice for every country and in this part of the book they mention the same concept. The IMF does not even use hard data to calculate things for each individual country and instead standardizes and oversimplifies policy to get to austerity. One of the Icelandic officials was complaining that the people having a right to choose what happens with their economy was wrong and the results should be left to either a computer or a few elite intellectual few. I am sorry, but is that supposed to be the IMF? Are they the “elite” and “intellectual” because their track record indicates otherwise. To see Iceland reject the IMF policy and continue to fund public healthcare except on even grander scales was amazing! The recession even managed to allow leisure time for their citizens, allowed for more sleep, and brought back an entire economy of fishing. Greece directly contrasted Iceland with their policies of austerity. The tumor story was startling to read and I had never even heard of an underground Robin Hood network of doctors. A 40% unemployment rate in youth was to me unheard of. The way they continued to lie about their citizen’s healthcare and lack a choice with democracy, the more upsetting it was to read about Greece.
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