Book review: Austerity (The Demolition of the Welfare State and the rise of the Zombie Economy)- Or, how a cross-party neo-liberal consensus continues to screw you over for corporate profit.

Author: Kerry-Anne Mendoza
Released: 15th January 2015
Publisher: New Internationalist
Website:
http://newint.org/books/politics/austerity/


I’m well aware of how annoying it is to read a review that begins with a sentence going something along the lines of ‘You have to read this book,’ but that’s exactly what I need to do here. You need to read the book. There you go, done it, sorry.

Having said that, we humans are notorious for acting in ways that are obviously detrimental to our own well being. We all need to reject the mainstream political parties in the UK this year, but what do you reckon will happen? My bet is that compromise will be the name of the game, and the sadly duped and propagandised masses will vote for the same old criminals that got us into this austerity mess in the first place.

Prove me wrong. Please, please, please please prove me wrong.

Anyway, so reading this book is something that you should do, and I guess it’s my job now to try and convince you that doing something that is good for you is a good thing.

Should be an easy sell for me, but humans are very strange creatures, and they’ve been programmed so well by their masters to not do what is good for them. So, whilst being fully aware that most people who read this review will spend their money on something frivolous rather than this eye-opening, essential, powerful, well-researched, concise and easy to read book I’ll nonetheless attempt to convince them to give it a chance.

So, why should you read the book?

Because it lets you know exactly why the world is so screwed up, tells you how it was screwed up, and names the people that actually did it, and continue to do it today. There’s no mention of the occult, of secret groups, of the new world order, of the globalists, or any of that stuff, instead the book talks details, and tells you what the political puppets did, who paid them to do it, and why continuing to vote for ANY of them is a total waste of time.

Why is it a waste of time? Because they are all following the same ‘neo-liberal’ policies that basically amount to using taxpayers money to subsidise private banks and corporations that are screwing us all over. The politicians are doing this with help from their complicit buddies in the educational institutions, mainstream media and (obviously) in the banking/regulatory (same thing) business.

Why are they doing this? Because they work for private corporations, not for the people who are conned into voting for them every four years or so, that’s why.

There’s no ‘conspiracy,’ they simply do what’s best for their own careers, and what’s best for their careers is to privatise everything, empowering the private sector through deregulation and to create cartel monopolies to maximise corporate profit. People are irrelevant. Load your pockets whilst you still can lads/ladies.

That’s how it works, and that is what this book is all about. It details how our elected political puppets follow neo-liberal economic policies that are destroying the world, all for corporate profit, screw the people, they don’t count anyway. That is the world, and that is what you are voting for in the ballot box, no matter where you put you little cross.

The book is extremely easy to read, and is broken up into short, easy to digest sections. These sections place the current situation in it’s proper historical context and detail how every institution in the UK (education, welfare, health, criminal justice) is being destroyed by a cross-part neo-liberal economic consensus.

It’s a quick read at just under 200 pages long and arms you with essential FACTS that will help you to disentangle yourself from the web of lies that has been woven by politicians as they blame easy targets for the consequences of their actions. These facts will make it clear that a lot of scapegoating is going on, and that vulnerable groups (single mums, asylum seekers, the unemployed etc) are victims of neo-liberal policies, rather than the villains as portrayed in the disgustingly complicit corporate whore mainstream media.

If you care at all about the world around you then get the book. If you don’t care then keep on reading comics, watching football, playing video games or whatever the Hell you do to distract yourself from the things that are important in life. I’m sure that what happens in the world around you will have no impact whatsoever on your life, and that you and your family are going to be immune from everything that is happening around them.

Yeah, I’m being purposefully provocative. Just get the book, read it, learn, and lets start doing something about these scumbags who are screwing us all over. If we continue to do nothing then they’ll continue to get away with what they are doing. They are making a fortune, whilst we are arguing amongst ourselves, blaming the blameless and grinning for the NSA with lonely, self absorbed selfies. It’s time to wake-up, and time to sort this mess out.

Rating: 10/10