Austerity vs. Penance — What's the Difference?

Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that claims to aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spending, raising taxes while cutting spending, and lower taxes and lower government spending.

Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a part in confession among Anglicans and Methodists, in which it is a rite, as well as among other Protestants.

The quality of being austere.

Punishment inflicted on oneself as an outward expression of repentance for wrongdoing

Severe and rigid economy

A sacrament in which a member of the Church confesses sins to a priest and is given absolution.

An austere habit or practice.

Impose a penance on

Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.

An act of self-mortification or devotion performed voluntarily to show sorrow for a sin or other wrongdoing.

Freedom from adornment; plainness; severe simplicity.

Penance A sacrament in some Christian churches that includes contrition, confession to a priest, acceptance of punishment, and absolution. Also called reconciliation.

(economics) A policy of deficit-cutting, which by definition requires lower spending, higher taxes, or both.

To impose penance upon.

(obsolete) Sourness and harshness to the taste.

A voluntary self-imposed punishment for a sinful act or wrongdoing. It may be intended to serve as reparation for the act.

Sourness and harshness to the taste.

A sacrament in some Christian churches.

Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.

Any instrument of self-punishment.

Plainness; freedom from adornment; severe simplicity.

(obsolete) repentance

The trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)

(obsolete) pain; sorrow; suffering

To impose penance; to punish.

Repentance.

Pain; sorrow; suffering.

A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression, imposed by a confessor or other ecclesiastical authority. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church.

Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement.

To impose penance; to punish.

Remorse for your past conduct

A Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and satisfaction and absolution

Voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing