europe

No, debts don’t always have to be paid back and that’s not the way things have typically worked throughout most of human history actually. Insisting all debts be paid back regardless of the cost to society is a concept even newer than capitalism itself, so a handful of generations. Austerity fucks over everybody, especially the future generations.

austerity is important. debts always have to be paid back

The European Central Bank can literally create at a keystroke the Euros that most European countries are indebted in. EU countries incurring in debt is a consequence of the arbitrary 3% deficit limit imposed during the previous century, which was decided in a 5-h meeting by a set of politicians who didn't understand economics, based on a study that has since been disproven (there were errors in the excel sheets used for the calculations of the article). Austerity is consistently harmful and monetarily unnecessary, especially when denominated in the country's own currency (as is the case of most developed countries).