There is no austerity (in most countries, including the UK, and the US). Governments are spending money like crazy, they are not austere.
As for governments not "picking up the slack", most of what they do is irrelevant to this case, and some of it contributes to the problem. Bigger government will likely breed more dependency, but not more peace.
Tim, what they do know is that they don't have hope for a better future.
To the extent government action can help with that its largely education (which already gets large and increasing amounts of money), and policing to keep down crime (the rioters seem to not like the police much, and they are committing crime, but the lack of security in their neighborhoods reduces opportunity for them, and winds up getting some of them killed. To the extent that government resources can help with these things its mostly a matter of better targeting and more efficiently using the vast sums that are already spent.
Indirectly, Cameron and his ridiculous budget is causing the development of more criminals in the UK.
Again most of the rioters know practically nothing about the budget. And the slight bit of spending restraint by Cameron is to small to make any serious difference along the lines of what you suggest (that and it hasn't been implemented long enough, and isn't really a negative thing anyway). The resentments where built up over time, and during most of that time spending has grown rapidly. Most of the government's spending is irrelevant to the situations faced by the rioters. |
