The stories of Iceland and Greece are fairly parallel up to the point where Greece decides to listen to the IMF and cut spending from the country’s vitals. Iceland is small economy that grew primarily focused on banking, which meant that it was hit hard by the most recent global recession. Its options were simple: stay in debt for a few years while maintaining its high standard for public health and try some government stimulus plans or attempt to fix the debt right away by cutting spending on things the country cannot do without. Thankfully, they chose the first option. However, Greece when confronted with a similar problem, did not. Direct results were seen in HIV numbers. Basu and Stuckler stick to the their theme successfully. Cutting government spending does not work in solving huge government debts. The evidence in these two chapters shows how small countries are affected by the two opposing policies adopted. However, we have yet to see if Iceland’s policy would work in countries that are much larger and have much more complex economies than Iceland in the current attempt to fully recover from recent global recession. Signs point to yes, but either way, it’s clear that the worst thing a government can do is austerity.
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