Well firstly i think for the benefit of people who are not clued up we should define what austerity actually is (because there's a lot of crap and misunderstanding)..
So is austerity a reduction in government spending? No is the simple answer, government spending has increased..
So what is austerity then.. Austerity is a reduction in government spending.... as a percentage of GDP..
The reason for austerity is to reduce the deficit (as a percentage of GDP)..
Not the debt (which is increasing).. a common misconception (this will fall once we eradicate the deficit)..
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Getting back to the question at hand..
I personally support austerity because i both value fiscal discipline but also think that the state spends too much. I see no issue in aiming to even better the surplus of 98-01 and the 38% spending to GDP we had in 01..
Regarding its effect on the economy, this can be split in two sections since 2010..
1) 2010-2012 - This period saw deep cuts to both current and capital spending along with mortgage lending at levels not seen since the 70's. It saw weak economic growth and a poor labour market performance. After the low hanging fruit was done with, the deficit also rose slightly.
2) For whatever reason Osbourne changed course and went to plan B. Current spending was cut at a slower rate, capital spending on the books was doubled and Help To Buy essentially brought about a debt based capital spending programme. The result is that unemployment has fallen from near 8% to near 5.5%, economic growth returned to moderate levels and the deficit began to fall again.
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In summary, so long as capital spending remains high i will continue to support the slower increase in government spending that we have observed.