Tuesday 25 October 2011

A Few Thoughts About The UK Economy

We don't have left-wing parties in the UK. What we have instead are three right-wing parties, one of which has a radical ultra-right arm, who are obsessed with free-market monetarist policies beyond the point of common sense. Their ideals are profoundly undemocratic and utterly opposed to liberal values. They believe in a Darwinian world where the strong have every right to dominate and exploit the weak. They are militantly capitalistic and against the common good. They put strength above morality and despise the common man. There is no society in their philosophy, just a collection of individuals competing against one another.

You might think that David Cameron's coalition is right-wing, but to to hard-right in the conservative party, poor Dave is seen as a feeble wet: an appeaser to the spineless liberal-democrat section of the coalition. If it was up to the hard Tory right, Britain would be suffering a far more brutal austerity programme than we're seeing now. And as it is, things are bad enough.

I'm not against capitalism. Capitalism has given us the technological world we live in, without which, our lives would be shorter and harder. What I'm against is an unrestrained capitalism that benefits a tiny elite group at the expense of everybody else.

Britain's economy has barely grown since the austerity measures began. We have the highest level of unemployment in fifteen years. The government has slashed public-sector jobs, putting more than 100, 000 people out of work. These deficit-reduction policies have failed to revive the business confidence that was supposed to encourage private-sector hiring. No effort has been made to stimulate growth by spending, because this runs counter to the right's myth that all government spending is wasteful and harmful.

This is blundering idiocy. Any fool can see that these policies are driving the country into the ground, but our glorious leaders are so wrapped up in their dogma, that they'd rather destroy the economy for a generation, than admit they're wrong.

8 comments:

Dave said...

As usual, a Brit out orates an American. I've tried to express what you've said here before but always using more words to less effect. I will be quoting this article, especially paragraph 1, to my friends, often. Thanks...

Anonymous said...

Sounds EXACTLY like the US for at least the entire first 'graph, only substitute a single word: 'two' for 'three'.

Anonymous said...

Very succinct and telling. I'd like to quote this at length.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you can necessarily equate technological progress and capitalism. Certainly, these days, Capitalism is resulting in intellectual protectionism, actually limiting blue-sky development. Because businesses wish to make a profit from the technology they have spent money developing, the access to, and knowledge of, that technology is restricted. Corporations also demand an immediate or imminent profit, limiting what kinds of technology scientists, engineers and other designers in their employ, can develop. The only real way forward for a technocratic society is to allow total openness of technology and a peer-reviewed system of allocating resources for development.

Anonymous said...

What utter, uniformed, sub-6th-form drivel. Please stick to drawing and step away from the politics.

Anonymous said...

why don't you share some of your 'knowledge' then if you think you have all the answers.

Anonymous said...

You're right, the UK clearly needs to abandon fiscal restraint so it can be less like that creaking German economy and more like Greece.

While indeed 'any fool' can see that a guy who's been PM for a year and a half is running the country into the ground (using a time machine, perhaps), the question is what the people who aren't fools are seeing.

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