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.
______________________
Reference
- Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
My 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.
ReplyDeleteBut 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, which the video we watched about the effects of austerity policies in Greece says began in 2008, 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. And yet weirdly, even though he is now out of power, the relatively poor who voted for him so enthusiastically continue to support Trump.
Is austerity a sound response to economic problems? I'm not sure. The effects in Greece seem to have been largely negative. I don't know much about these economic issues, but if they are possible, the approach the Biden is now pursuing in teh US of boosting the economy by spending more rather than less seems more likely to work. I'm also reminded of Thailand's economic crash in 1997 - that forced austerity on a lot of people, although I'm not sure whether austerity was the official policy of the government at the time. If I remember correctly, Chuan Leek-pai was then prime minister. I remember thinking he did fairly well in the very difficult situation he had inherited from his incompetent predecessors, but I honestly don't remember whether he succeeded by adopting austerity policies or not. Happily, Thailand recovered fairly quickly.
I am really impressed by your very ideas above and how you strongly present your point of views along with raising the economic situations in the United States and Thailand that actually happened in the past to support your own ideas. This can well demonstrate that you are well-rounded especially in terms of world's economics and history.
DeleteAusterity is a good way to tackle with the struggling economy but yet not the best way. This is because austerity is like we are not solving the problem at its root cause. There are other sensible approaches which can be successful in dealing with the economic recession; for example, cutting down on interest rates and income tax rates. This method can help motivate the people to spend more money, resulting in a case flow and an influx of the investment into the market.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I personally think that the government should bear the main responsibility for economic performance of a country because the government has considerable financial resources.
I like your idea that austerity might not be the best approach because it treats not the real causes of economic problems but their symptoms. As my own comment above suggests, I agree that strategies such as reducing interest rates are more likely to boost spending to get an economy growing again.
DeleteI'm in two minds about income tax reductions. I think it would be useful to reduce many income tax rates, but I'm less sure that the tax on the highest incomes should be reduced. However, perhaps the real problem there is that it's too easy for some super-rich people to legally avoid paying the tax they should. This has been in the news recently, where leaked documents from the US Tax Office (IRS - Inland Revenue Service) showed that some extremely rich people often pay little or no tax, and on average a lower percentage rate than those earning more normal incomes. Actually, I think my tax rate in Thailand is low. It's certainly low compared to what I pay in Australia.
I was also tempted to mention UBIs (universal basic income) here, but perhaps that's starting to get a bit off topic, although it does seem a sensible way to way to, for example, get money into the pockets of people in Greece to get them spending, and having some security against the risks incurred in starting a new business.