Flickr/Ian Muttoo. Some rights reserved.
On an economic level, austerity draws its appeal from the common-sense idea of the economy-as-household previously mobilised by Thatcher. This is based on of not living beyond our means as individuals and the assumption that an identical logic also applies to macroeconomics. As economist Mark Blyth argues in The Austerity Delusion (2013), ‘Ideologically, it is the intuitive appeal of the idea of austerity - of not spending more than you have – that really casts its spell’. The appeal of the metaphor of the economy-as-household, however, is only partly about economics; it is in fact primarily a moral argument. In situations where macro-economics are seen as difficult to understand, the metaphor of economy as household provides a kind of reassuring simplicity and ordinariness. In other words, the economy is simply about living within our means and not spending too much on things we don’t need, or having to borrow from friends or relatives.
But the metaphor of the home is moral and emotive in other ways, as it brings together questions of familiarity, intimacy, property relations and security. It also works as a metaphor to mark out nationality, citizenship and belonging. As William Walters argued in ‘Secure Borders, Safe Nation: Domopolitics’ (written before the financial crisis but still relevant):
