AUSTERITY AND THE DECLINE OF THE COLLECTIVE
I am honoured to be celebrating the life and values of Arnold Amber. Celebrating social justice and human rights and a life of activism has never seemed more important. Thank you to Arnold’s family and to all for coming out. And I should probably also thank the NBA for scheduling game 1 of the finals for tomorrow rather than today.
Let me begin by going straight to my conclusions. I do this so that if you doze off during my presentation, as people so often do, you will at least know what you missed. So, my five conclusions:
1. Austerity is toxic.
2. It is built on a lie, and on a withered idea of freedom and a hollowed out notion of citizenship.
3. Austerity is self-perpetuating, trapping us, stunting our political imagination.
4. We nevertheless do have alternatives. There are always alternatives. Big change is hard, but given the risks, the stakes, the opportunities, big change is urgent, and bold is exactly what’s needed if we are to meet our challenges and break out of the austerity trap.
5. A new generation of leaders is giving us reason for hope, though clearly there’s no reason for complacency.
2. It is built on a lie, and on a withered idea of freedom and a hollowed out notion of citizenship.
3. Austerity is self-perpetuating, trapping us, stunting our political imagination.
4. We nevertheless do have alternatives. There are always alternatives. Big change is hard, but given the risks, the stakes, the opportunities, big change is urgent, and bold is exactly what’s needed if we are to meet our challenges and break out of the austerity trap.
5. A new generation of leaders is giving us reason for hope, though clearly there’s no reason for complacency.
WHAT IS AUSTERITY?
By austerity, I simply mean the belief that cutting taxes and government spending is the solution to whatever ails us. Slow growth? Cut taxes and spending. Soaring debt? Cut taxes and spending. Economic insecurity and inequality? Cut taxes and spending.
By austerity, I simply mean the belief that cutting taxes and government spending is the solution to whatever ails us. Slow growth? Cut taxes and spending. Soaring debt? Cut taxes and spending. Economic insecurity and inequality? Cut taxes and spending.
In one way or another, Canadians have been living with austerity for several decades. Admittedly, we have experienced nothing like what the Greeks or Spanish have gone through. Ours has been an austerity in slow motion, but austerity nonetheless and austerity largely self-imposed.
In Canada, for example, taxes as a percentage of the economy are lower than they have been since the days before medicare and universal pensions. Total government spending as a portion of the economy is below the OECD average. And when it comes to social spending, we are near the bottom. Here in Ontario, following a round of unaffordable tax cuts, cuts to vital services accelerate, even though Ontario’s per capita spending is the lowest of all the provinces.
And while Canadians not so long ago voted for governments that vowed to end the austerity, the previous decades of tax cuts constrained their options and none were willing to reverse those cuts in significant ways. Any tax increase for some was typically joined by an even more costly tax cut for others. And, now, for many, austerity at full throttle seems to be making a comeback.
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