austerity

We would have to go back to Latin to find the etymological origin of the word austerity. Specifically, we have to say that it is the result of the sum of two components of that language: the adjective "austerus", which is synonymous with "rough or difficult", and the suffix "-itas", which can be translated as "quality" .

Austerity is a term that indicates the austere quality. Someone austere, for his part, is sober, temperate, penitent and severe, that does not make any kind of bragging and that strictly conforms to the standards of the moral.

In recent years, due to the situation of economic crisis, in which different countries of the world are immersed, there has been the continued use of what has been called economic austerity.

Specifically, with this term what is being defined is a type of economic policy carried out by various governments with the clear objective of achieving some improvement in the financial situation, although in many cases they do not achieve the expected results.

In this way, when it encourages and bets on economic austerity, what is carried out is a set of tax increases as well as a reduction in public spending. That is to say, what ordinary citizens have called cuts.

Thus, for example, in Spain the government of the Popular Party has established this type of policy through forceful cuts in education or public health, which has raised complaints and reproaches from the population for considering that these represent a serious impairment to their quality of work. lifetime. All this while they have seen how the tax increase was produced in aspects such as electricity.

It is possible to associate austerity with frugality (the measured consumption of goods Y services) or to asceticism (the denial of material pleasures). That is why austerity can be understood as the mortification of the passions or the senses.

On the other hand, austerity should not be linked to lack. A millionaire can be austere, while a poor man can squander what little he has. Suppose the owner of a large company earns $ 200,000 a month. This sum would allow him to have luxury cars and a mansion, or to take trips around the world. However, this businessman prefers austerity: he lives in the house he inherited from his parents, he has an old car and always spends the summer on a beach in his country.

A man that he is unemployed, instead, he spends beyond his means and consumes his savings without thinking about the future. Despite not having a job, this person he shows that he does not know what austerity is and decides to buy a new car even though he already has one that allows him to move around without problems.