Austerity and poverty

The ambiguities of the terms ‘austerity’ and ‘poverty’ make it difficult to tie down any firm or clear relationship between the two. The idea of ‘austerity’ is variously used to refer to economic deflation, the reduction of public debt, the retrenchment of public services, or a change in the balance of public and private provision. ‘Poverty’ is used at different times refers to deprivation, inequality and social exclusion. Underlying the two fields of discourse, there is an irresistible sense that they must be connected: if the economy is shrinking, or if people are getting less support from the public sphere, then people who have little must be worse off still. However, conflicting interpretations, political spin and the inadequacies of the informational base make it hard to prove that austerity is at the root of these problems, or to offer any firm proof that poverty and austerity are intimately linked.