Both “austerity” and “stimulus” do more harm than good when done by governments to stimulate economic growth.
Think of John Doe as the patient and Uncle Sam as the doctor. John Doe is flat on his back and sick in bed, unable to work and certainly unable to pay the doctor.
Under “austerity” therapy, the doctor would just leave John Doe alone to rest until he was well again. If he gets better on his own he can go back to work and pay the doctor. If he doesn’t get better right away, the temptation is for the doctor to monkey around with more “treatments” and “gimmicks” that will run up the bill. If John dies, the doctor gets nothing.
Under “stimulus” therapy, the doctor forces his sick patient to work to buy his own food and medicine to make him get well so he can work and pay the bill. If the patient is unable to work, the doctor steals food and medicine from his other patients or from John to give to him, which causes John to owe a lot more. If the doctor gives John too much of the wrong kind of medicine, he will stay sick and could even die.
As you can see from this analogy, the best outcome is for the quack doctor to do nothing but make the patient comfortable so he can get better on his own.
No, in the austerity case the doctor tells the patient to lose weight.