What is it?
In their discussion questions that conclude watching the video discussing the Greek experience with austerity economic policies, Warwick and Rogers (2018, p. 63) invite us to discuss follow-up questions, giving and arguing for our own opinions on related questions.______________________
What do you think?
Do you think austerity is a useful way to tackle a struggling economy? What other approaches could be successful?
page 62
- Who do you think has ultimate responsibility for the economic performance of a country? Why?
- Do you think a difficult economic situation fosters a stronger or weaker sense of community in the affected country?
- planning = 3:00 minutes (It's usually a good idea to plan before you start to write.)
- writing = 10:00 minutes, and
- editing = 2:00 minutes.
If you like, you can discuss the questions in a different order, and it won't matter if you don't cover all of them in the 15:00 minutes allowed. You will be able to write more for homework.
A helpful strategy
Do not write things like "question 1."
Instead, imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are responding to. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. But you need to rewrite (paraphrase) the idea in the question as a statement.
More generally, because our writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer. This is also a useful strategy in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL.
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Reference
- Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
Although I think that governments should leave people largely free to make their own economic decisions, the government is also responsible for the nation's well-being, which includes managing the economic performance of a country.
ReplyDeleteRelated to this, governments must also look after the poorer people in society, who for whatever reason do not have the skills that are in demand by employers, or who lose jobs because of an economic crisis. In the case of Greece, it seems that the austerity policy is not helping, so a different approach would be preferable.
I think that the current US approach under President Biden is more likely to boost an economy. Instead of cutting back government assistance and spending, Biden is spending a lot of money on projects to get people working, producing and boosting the US economy. Of course, that policy also comes with costs because eventually the government policies have to be paid for. Biden has not, but I think he should raise taxes more.
Some people might think that if people have worked hard to earn their money, they should not be taxed, but that is based on bad reasoning and a mistaken understanding of how personal wealth is accumulated. It is true that people like Bill Gates worked very hard to make their vast wealth, and I work reasonably hard to earn my more modest income, but the fact is that both Gates and I are comfortably off economically because of luck. Gates was lucky to be a brilliant computer programmer just at the right time. I was lucky to be born in a country where English is the native language and to have parents who supported my study at university. Without those benefits that Bill Gates and I did absolutely nothing to deserve, we would not have been able to be as economically secure are we are, so I think it's perfectly reasonable that we should be taxed to help those who were not lucky enough to get the chances that we got without deserving them.
Difficult economic situations affect the difficult quality of the people. It also affects the quality of the government in the administration of national security. The Prime Minister and the government's economic team must be the key to solving the problem. But public cooperation is also involved in solving the problem. Austerity in spending money cannot really help the dreaded economic situation. The stimulus of spending is the one that drives the circular economy. After the transaction takes place in the economy, the government will begin to regain taxes to manage the situation for mitigate .
ReplyDeleteAusterity is a common approach to tackle a struggle economy. However the government should have a clear and organized plan. To be exact, the government should know which schemes or investment that they must reduce the costs in order to save the whole country's economy. As more people is sinking into poverty, government should come up with a strong and smart policy. For example, if the money in the system is actually low and people also do not have money to spend, the only way is to borrow money. With a loan, everyone in the country is responsible for the debt which the government must take the lead to manage it. In this difficult economic situation, birth rate usually declines because people tend to reserve as much money as possible including avoiding to have children. This may lead to decline in population in the future. At this point the country might face a risk of lacking in skilled workers. Therefore, the government must think very carefully before they come up with any kind of scheme or policy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point. The government is a key element to resolve a financial crisis. If the government launches the right policy at the right moment, the problem will be solved. Some leaders, on the other hand, take the wrong direction and make the country's financial condition worse with a weak policy. Borrowing money to boost the economy is a popular tactic. If the government has a clear strategy and organize it flawlessly, the country's economy will grow. Several states, however, face higher public debt as a result of poor loan management. Thus, the government should beware of its capabilities and provide an opportunity for every individual to support its plan.
DeleteAusterity is not a good way to deal with the economic problem. This is because the money will not be spent on any products or services, and the businessman do not have money. Therefore, there is increasing number of poverty in the country. The solution of this struggle is making a discount so that the customer want to spent their money. The government is the important person who response to the economy. Because they can make a law or some encouragement to make the business decrease their price. Hence, the customers will spend their money, and the economic will run again. Bad economic situation affects a weaker sense of community. Since the number of poverty become larger, and the people's life quality would be worsen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement. The sense of community will be lose because of the economic problem. It also affect directly to the quality of life.
DeletePersonally, austerity grants benefit to people and states only in a short period. It does not work in a long-term crisis. Some givers are able to become homeless too if they cannot receive income due to a lack of economic flexibility. A government should have a responsibility and find an appropriate solution along with support from citizens. For instance, launching some policies to change citizens' lifestyle in order to support their living and career. When people have jobs, the state's economy will rise. However, if a government cannot plan any good criteria and solution, the situation will be worse. In general, citizens in a poor state will be more united because they have the same feeling about their country's situation. Sometimes, this unity is stronger and will be used as a significant factor to reach a better economic situation. To sum up, a government should play a crucial role and need support from its people to solve economic problems.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Government is the people who have to solve the economic issues. And if the government is not smart enough, the economic can get worsen.
DeleteAusterity is one of a good idea for solving the economic problem in some countries. however, there are many way to tackle flagging economy. In in my opinion, government should be spend money for hiring people and reduce the cost of infrastructure such as public transport. Government should respond for this problem because they have a power to make the policy and lead the country pass this situation. the difficult economy would reduce the sense of community because people get the difficult in their life. Some people might loss their jobs and their places. People will think to leave their community and country to get opportunity in the new place.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in a sense that employment rate and cost-of-living are correlated and the government should take monitor closely on these two indexes. People would seek for more opportunities by leaving their community where they grew and migrating to new places.
DeleteIn my previous comment, I ran out of time before I could talk about the effect that a difficult economic situation has on a country, for example Greece since the global economic crisis of 2007/2008.
ReplyDeleteMy first idea was that economic difficulty might foster a stronger sense of community as people work together to solve the problems confronting them as a result of economic trouble. For example, in World War II, when London was bombed by the Germans, the people were suffering a lot, but they also reported being cheerful, working together, and getting on with life. I thought something similar might happen in an economic downturn.
But when I thought about it more, I'm not so sure. Because of Covid, my own country and Thailand are suffering economic problems, and although I think that within communities, the ties might be strengthened as people in the community look after each other and come together like people in the soup kitchen in Greece, I'm not sure that this applies across society. My feeling is that much of the dissatisfaction in America that saw the rise of Donald Trump is because the causes and the results of teh economic crisis that began in 2007 divided different groups of people from one another, with the less well off, the poor, who suffered the effects of the acts of irresponsible bankers and incompetent politicians, blaming them for causing the suffering. THis strengthened the sense of community among the poor, but created a much stronger divide between them and the minority of well off Americans, and that is how Donald Trump became president: he tapped into the deep dissatisfaction with the elite status quo that many Americans blamed for their economic problems going back many years. I don't agree with that analysis of the economic problems confronting America since 2007, but many people do, and their anger is therefore understandable, even though I think misplaced. In fact, I think the unemployed of AMerica should blame people like Trump for their economic problems.
Have a lot of argument in many way to recover economy and what is the best way to solve this problem, some people accept to reduce public spending. But I my opinion, I disagree with reducing money in economic system.
ReplyDeleteThe main idea is we should to raise people who can't afford things in their daily life and help companies to urge selling and laber force still job.
I think austerity is not a useful way to tackle a struggling economy because austerity is a system of reducing public spending. Reducing public spending is not a good idea for me. The way to be successful is spending more and earning more. Maybe we should look for something that will make money. For me, The government has ultimate responsibility for the economic performance of a country because the government manages everything in the country. Bad or good economics depend on the government. I think a difficult economic situation doesn't foster a stronger or weaker sense of community in the affected country. Everyone has problems in this situation.
ReplyDeleteA great deal of country solve their economy problem by using austerity way. However, I think that it is not a good idea for tackle this problem in a long term. Some people who always recieve help from the government they will not work or thinking a new thing because they know that they have some food which they can eat or some hepls from the government. Therefore, the government is the good performace to response in this problem by creating new career for unemployment people. I think that of people have a good career, they will not need the government helps. As a result, the country will grow and the financial in country will improve. No one in country want to face with financial problem in their country because it make them weaker. People do not have spirit to do a jobs because they know that they do not have a good life in the future. Finally, If the government can solve this problem, people in their country will have a happy life in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe country's economy performance is the responsibility of the government. During the economic crisis, government may suggest the austerity as the method to fix the situation. However, I believe that it is an effective solution as long as it is used in right circumstance and in the right time because it could lead to negatives impacts on the economy in the long-run such as recession, liquidity trap and etc. These problems may also weaken the sense of community in the society as people will start to do anything in order to survive in this kind of situations without caring about others.
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, Economic problem are alway come from the government mismanagement, corruption, and the government team are not expertise in leading the country.
ReplyDeleteSo, I personally believe the austerity is not a good remedy to heal or tackle the crisis, but I think it's our duty for all of us.