"Austerity". Sounds so NOBLE, doesn't it?

[sibelian]

You can imagine patient, careworn workers with a strong sense of common decency and tear-stained faces cheering "God bless you, good sir!" as their leaders praise them, casting out the cake crumbs! I can almost hear the home-spun wisdom now. It's going to make GREAT copy. Tremendously evocative.

[xchrom]

1. are you going to attend any of the protests in th uk?

if so it would be cool if you kept us updated.

[sibelian]

4. Protests are extremely well managed by the Government and the police in the UK.

They have an almost negligible effect. The last time there was any result from protest was the Poll Tax riots and they were VERY serious, very dangerous and it's highly debatable that they really had any effect anyway, the main reason the policy was dropped was because there was an incredibly strong, entirely unprecedented non-payment movement that utterly swamped the fiscal recovery mechanisms. It became far more expensive to pursue the non-payers than to drop the policy so they dropped the policy.

If they start screwing with the Scottish NHS I'll go out, but probably not before. Scotland's relatively well protected by devolution and it's enormous public sector (~25% of the workforce). The protests in London are too far away!

[jwirr]

8. You are telling us that non-payment when done by the multitude

works? Hmmm. The problem here would be getting the word out and having a large enough group to make a difference. Great idea though. In the US we are so divided on what we think that if one section of the country stopped paying the company/target would survive in the other sections.

[sibelian]

10. It was HIGHLY effective. But...

You're right, it required phenomenal coherence. The whole country was incensed and reacted very badly to the policy, which helped.

Despite that, money counts, if activists spent more of their time thinking about how to screw the enemy financially the results are likely to be, in my opinion, CONSIDERABLY, by which I mean, VASTLY and INSTANTLY more effective than protest.

I will put up a thread in a bit explaining another bit of Scottish politics that focussed on very FISCAL and AMAZINGLY EFFECTIVE form of protest.

[jwirr]

11. Thank you. We need something over here that will help us fight the

corporate rule in this country.

[sibelian]

14. IT. WORKS.

Truly. The effect was swift. SWIFT. And profound. They didn't attempt that sort of crap again.

It might be time to start looking at who funds what. There will be any number of simple ways to disrupt the flow legally.

[damntexdem]

2. Sounds like Auschwitz.

And from a politician, it sounds ostentatious.

And here in Texas, it sounds more and more like Austin. ;-)

[FSogol]

3. Sadly it means austerity for the poor and middle class, business as usual for the rich & powerful.

:shrug:

[saras]

5. It means 'theft', pure and simple

It means "we're taking from you everything you've produced or saved over your whole life, because we want it. We want your life to consist of nothing but suffering, so that we can enjoy watching you, and feel superior."

[woo me with science]

6. Austerity, pragmatism, American thrift, shared sacrifice,

How long until we start seeing the inspiring Horatio Alger posters in our political ads?

[Dappleganger]

7. Time to go Egypt.

[Tsiyu]

9. Other than leaving out the bootstraps we're all supposed to be issued

your description about sums it up.

I'm going for self-sufficiency at this stage, since there's not much you can trust in the role they want us to play.

[sibelian]

15. I'll be doing some of that.

I don't know how much it will help, though...

[Bandit]

12. Sort of like Audacity as in "The Audacity of Hope"

"Yes We Can"..."Main Street NOT Wall Street" ...:shrug:..I am so sick of all the fucking LIES.

[QC]

13. Sounds like something Marcus Aurelius would urge on us.

Or maybe it's like Aristotle's injunction to seek moderation in all things, to live simply and eat moderately.

[Starry Messenger]

16. Right, like wartime nylon rationing or something.

"We've all got to do our bit". I like this graphic from the UK: