David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu’s work, The Body Economic, is the latest reading that attempts to tear away the wool covering–or more accurately, enswathing—our eyes. The crux of their argument, at least according to my understanding, is the idea that by adopting strict measures of austerity during a financial crisis, the public health of the greater population is placed in harms way. Though the idea of spending and saving wisely, especially during hard times, is a deeply respected value, the fact that frugality and thriftiness are proven to work on an individual and communal level should not imply that the same practices would be effective on an administrative plane. Rather the two authors assert, quite convincingly, that “austerity” as a nationwide economic policy is not a sound practice, it is merely an ill-advised attempt at repairing an economy on the fly.
Though my opinion does not mean much, their claims seem to hold water. As far as I understand, an economy gets “fixed” when citizens are able to pour their hard-earned dollars back into the multitude of businesses, large and small, that comprise that country’s populace. If austere government policies lead to the physical debilitation of the general public, then the victims of the policies are rendered incapable of contributing to the “fixing” of the economy in any manner. Cutting-back is counterproductive.
