Letter: Austerity is a failed economic approach

Although I haven’t seen it described in this way elsewhere, the pattern of large cuts in the Trump budget follows the same plan as the austerity programs in several European countries earlier this decade. The result was to crash economies of several countries, with exploding rates of unemployment.

I realize that we Americans regard ourselves as “exceptional,” and that experience elsewhere in advanced countries does not apply to us. But it seems entirely sensible to look at the European austerity failure (Google or Bing it).

The old Einstein definition of insanity applies here: doing the same failed thing over and over again, each time expecting a different result.

Although falsely attributed to Einstein, another quote comes to mind, which spells out the difference between genius and stupidity: “Genius has limits.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2017 at 4:29 AM with the headline "Letter: Austerity is a failed economic approach."