I don't doubt the impact of the recession on forging the mindset we have today, but surely the response to it rests on the ease with which you (both the individual and the government) can blame AN Other. In Japan and China, immigration is very low, so that's off the table. Canada and Australia have huge natural resource based economies that have enabled them to weather the recession (indeed, I don't think Australia even had a recession did they?). The United States has immigration with a more diversified economy so are in a similar position to us.
As it is in Europe, as the chart below shows, government spending as a proportion of GDP has been falling in recent years, but is still above pre-recession levels, so the idea that there has been mass austerity, governments cut to the bone and so on isn't really supported by the facts.
I posted a few weeks ago about our propensity to believe problems still exist, even when they've been largely solved, and I do wonder if that isn't the case in the reaction of some to the aftermath of the recession. I've no doubt there has been hardship and difficulties for many, but whether you compare the hardship seen in Britain with hardships both in many other places in the world and that Britain itself has endured in the past century, then I do wonder if a bit of perspective is needed. I mean the world adapted to this recession infinitely better than it did the Depression.
