Good article. Its amazing how the Labor Party and those on the wealthy Left cannot see themselves as part of the elite. Simply by sympathising with and encouraging protest from those who feel hard done by seems to make people like Swan believe he is one of them.

I like this article in that it exposes the ideology of austerity that's currently being foisted in some parts of the world, and the fact that the austerity is being paid by the least well-off while the rich are largely immune. But I suspect the author's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
I for one will never seek to reduce my carbon footprint while the rich live so outrageously beyond anything sustainable or conscionable. I'm all for cutting consumption and its polluting by-products, but I'm damned if I'll ever seek to reduce my environmental footprint before the wealthy cut their's (preferably at the neck). What the world is yet to wake up to is that austerity should be imposed from the top down!
Where I disagree (vehemently) with the author is on the notion, the endless/mindless refrain, that economic growth is the cure. I also find his central contention--that governments are preferring austerity over growth because they're gloomy, rather than confronted by harsh realities--ludicrous. Economic growth hitherto, or for the last few decades, has been fabricated from a breath-taking credit binge (public and private) who's debts now preclude any hope of "healthy" growth born of production or innovation (no growth is healthy for the environment but that's another topic).
It's certainly true that austerity imposed on the poor, a la King John, is never going to restore "prosperity" (i.e. profits for the rich), but growth can no longer be conjured up with credit either.
This bloke's selling snake oil.

But, Squeers - we in the West "are" the rich people.

Squeers - we in the West "are" the rich people.
Poirot,
This one of your more profound rose-coloured statements. This is not the sort of idealistic nonsense we need to combat the crisis.
Are you saying that the multi billionaires & other obscenely rich of the East with their fleets of planes, ships & cars are part of the West ? The West which has millions of people just making enough to get through the day ? Those whose labour for peanuts keeps so many useless bureaucrats in a comfortable existence ?
You really are in great need of a dose of reality.

True Poirot, but then all things are relative and there's a wealthy elite presiding over every impoverished nation, just as there is every wealthy nation. And it's not just about money and power; our very worth is gauged by our material footprint, such that greenies are doubly, neigh triply, cursed; they take on the mantle of brainless idealists, worthless bludgers, and Christ-like dupes to the Romans, who continue on regardless. I'd rather go down with the wealthy than effectively be of their working-class martyrs. That's why the world over the working classes accept the ongoing con-job that keeps them in check, meekly being punished for the excesses of the money manipulators; because they've got not dignity that's not vested in real estate or blue chip stocks, and thus no balls.

individual,

You're the one who could do with a dose of "reality".

To be underprivileged in the West is worlds away from third world impoverishment. Although not having enough to pay for all the stuff you've been encouraged to buy on credit is definitely painful.

Who starves to death or dies from a preventable disease in rich industrial nations?