Austerity: Word of the year to word of the decade?

I thought I would go to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Site so I could properly get everyone the definition of Austerity. When going to their homepage, I looked at the homepage and they had two different categories that I found interesting. They had the most frequently looked up words within the past 24 hours and then in the past seven days.

Here is that list for the past 24 hours:

  Love

2.       Austerity

3.       Valentine

4.       Pragmatic

5.       Ambivalence

6.       Disposition

7.       Capitalism

8.       Socialism

9.       Tenacious

And here is the list for the past 7 days:

1.       Austerity

2.       Pragmatic

3.       Love

4.       Marriage

5.       Disposition

6.       Ambivalence

7.       Didactic

8.       Holistic

9.       Tenacious

10.   Socialism

Very interesting  just looking at those words, and the fact that a lot of people had to look up some of these move commonly used words like Love, Marriage, and Valentine. With the bailout problems that have loomed over the European States over the past few years it seems the word of the year over there seems to be Austerity. Before the bailouts over in Greece, Ireland, and other outlying states the word Austerity was hardly ever used, let alone known about. I have to admit, when I first heard that word used a few years back I had to look it up to make sure I understand what the global news was talking about.

So the definition of Austerity: the quality or state of being austere or enforced or extreme economy.

With some of these countries  going through bailouts and trying to get more bailout money, before the EU and IMF will grant more lending the Governments must come up with more austerity measures. What does that mean? It means to lower the minimum wage, raise taxes, cut government and public programs, reduce budget cuts, and push the citizens into poverty with no hope of a good future.

My next question is do we, as Americans feel that America is slowly taking an measures towards austerity? With major budget cuts in school funding, government programs, major house foreclosures, job cuts coming nationwide, taxes keep being raised, and more laws becoming stricter. Do you feel that we are headed in this direction, just not yet giving into extreme measures as the European states are?