Saturday, October 23, 2010

Freedom 75: Great Britain not doing so Great

How far away are we - here in Canada, land of the burly and home of the rutting moose - from the following headline?

“Britain slashes spending, will cut 500,000 public jobs”

Yikes.

A recent article began this way:

“Britain will cut half a million jobs, raise the retirement age and slash welfare as part of an unprecedented cost-cutting drive announced on Wednesday that will test the strength of the economy and the government.” (Oct. 21, London Free Press)

I also read the following details:

$130 billion in cuts

$29 billion cut from the welfare bill

Some gov’t dept. will shrink by 19%


["Who can afford to go to the Circus?"]

State pension age will rise to 66 by 2010


(Is Freedom 75 in the works?)

490,000 public-sector jobs will likely disappear over the next four years

The financial sector (blamed for the economic crisis) will have to pay its fair share


Oh. I didn’t read the following details:

Other parts of the corporate sector will also pay their fair share since they live in Great Britain along with the rest of us public-sector blokes

Sorry, I digress.

So, the cuts have begun. Unfairly distributed in my mind, but maybe that’s just me.

Citizens in Canada and the US, with national debts mounting and few ideas being thrown about related to how to slow increasing costs, may well be reading the same headline soon.

***

Some corporations will not want to make any sacrifice.

The age of austerity is not just for certain individuals.

We should all have a retirement plan beyond winning the lottery.

.

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