Ideology in the Name of Austerity
By (aka Ramblings in the Name of a Coherent Blog Post)
As I’ve argued here before, the policy proposals of the recently ascendant right, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, disingenuously uses the excuse of austerity in order to sell impose a blatantly ideological program of spending cuts (and paradoxically in the United States at least, tax cuts as well) . Dionne writes about this in his Post column this past Sunday:
A phony metaphor is being used to hijack the nation’s political conversation and skew public policies to benefit better-off Americans and hurt most others.
In the UK this has been, and will continue to be, a watershed in the rolling back of the state. Examples include wholesale “reform” of the NHS (opposed by no less than the British Medical Association), and large scale job losses in the public sector (132,000 in 2010 alone, and this represents only the leading edge of the cuts).
Universities are not immune. Given the job losses elsewhere in the economy, a sound long term approach would be to enhance, rather than stifle, universities. Cuts for the 2011-12 academic year have been released, and it’s not a relaxing read — only one university will not see an overall reduction in financing — with more dramatic cuts on their way. My august institution of higher learning enjoys a 4.9% cut for next year. The coalition government perseveres, even though data from the IMF suggest that perhaps this isn’t the most prudent approach. (See additional warnings by an IMF-convened conference here, and a warning by the US Ambassador to the UK that the spending cuts proposed by the coalition government as bonkers here.)
The same is true in the US, with wide ranging ideologically motivated cuts suggested (e.g. Planned Parenthood, NPR) that promise an insignificant reduction of the deficit (the stated goal, remember). At least the US has an empowered opposition to this ideology, with the Democrats holding the executive branch, and on paper at least, half of the legislative branch. Or does it? The Democrats, as genetically determined, are disorganized according to this account. At least Labour here in the UK have found their voice, but it’s a toothless voice: Labour are powerless to do anything at all.
So, it looks as though we’re taking to the streets. Public sector unions are planning a million-strong strike this June, including the university union, in the name of pensions. Additionally, all universities in the UK will be striking for, I think, one day only next Thursday. At least I hope it’s only one day, as by carefully tended recklessly expended personal finances can’t afford much more than a single day.
But hell, this is one way to get out of a couple lectures.
