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1. Austerity is a mood. It is the mood of sacrifice, of bourgeois ascetism. It invokes Protestant sacrifice and a cleansing effort to redeem ourselves of sin.
2. Austerity is not a policy, although some policies may be said to embody austerity.
3. Different policies can be austerity. The same policy can be austerity and non-austerity.
4. Love of austerity is a disease of the Right, but the idea that we have sinned economically and need sacrifice to atone appeals to the Western psyche on a deeper level than the left-right divide (and much left-wing is Right-wing at a deeper level).
This was motivated by listening to callers in Forum TSF (a Portuguese radio call-in show which goes during my commute) being largely against austerity. However, a few argued that what was needed instead were more cuts in governmental spending (as opposed to higher taxes).
It seems that calling a policy a growth policy means "I like this" and calling it an austerity policy means "I don't like this."
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