CrashConnoisseur Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Another insightful article by Chris Dillow... 'Cameron's consistent error': http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2012/03/camerons-consistent-error.html The government has been criticised for triggering panic buying of petrol. What’s not been pointed out is that its mistake here is not an isolated one, but is in fact a common theme of some of its major policies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Cameron most likely believes Adam Smith. "Individual ambition serves the common good" You can see it in every policy direction they have. The lesson he needs to learn is this, "the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself, AND the group." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danlee74 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Cameron most likely believes Adam Smith. "Individual ambition serves the common good" You can see it in every policy direction they have. The lesson he needs to learn is this, "the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself, AND the group." Great film and a great lesson! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 (edited) Great film and a great lesson! Yep, and it doesn't look like any of our politicians on either side have seen or understood it. The work experience scheme is a good example of Cameron's lack of understanding. The young jobless say they're being refused work because of "lack of experience" (when truth is employer had 100 applicants for 1 post, and had to give a 'reason' why they're refused) MPs think, 'lets give em experience. lets start a scheme' Now all the young have experience, in the same job, and have the same reference. All of which now cancel out each others reference. There's now fewer jobs available because all the paid shelf stackers at Tescos have been replaced with free workers. There's now 200 applicants for 1 post. Employer has to come up with even more ridiculous reasons to reject. and the whole process repeats again, and again. Edited March 29, 2012 by sleeping dog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 There is no politician or magic bullet to resolve the problems in the UK. Well, unless the planet's population is reduced by 85%. But that's another story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 There is no politician or magic bullet to resolve the problems in the UK. Well, unless the planet's population is reduced by 85%. But that's another story. They could just try doing nothing. If the politicians got out of the way and stop fiddling. Housing costs fall, and as a result British workers can suddenly work for less. Jobs can then be created. Right now Brits are priced out of the world jobs market by high housing costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R K Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 They could just try doing nothing. If the politicians got out of the way and stop fiddling. Housing costs fall, and as a result British workers can suddenly work for less. Jobs can then be created. Right now Brits are priced out of the world jobs market by high housing costs. They're excluded by free capital flows. A policy choice by Cameron and his predecessors for the last 40 odd years. When they proclaim 'free markets' they forget to say 'free' for whom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 They're excluded by free capital flows. A policy choice by Cameron and his predecessors for the last 40 odd years. When they proclaim 'free markets' they forget to say 'free' for whom Agreed. The free movement of capital is exposing our high housing cost economies to pain. The politicians are in complete denial about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopGun Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) As far as Cameron, Blair etc are concerned everything is going to plan. Get ready for the next phase of misinterpreted Neo Keynesianism: The complete shifting of public to private sector the burden of employing people to drill and fill in holes. What's that great HPC platitude about deck chairs and the Titanic again? Nothing at all to do with distracting from the main issue. Edited March 30, 2012 by PopGun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyguy Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I've been reading Chris Dillow for quite a while. First in the investors Chronicle, then odd ventures onto Stumbling + mumbling. He does tend to over analyse things. An occupation hazard if you're paid to think + write. Sometimes things are that way because thats the way sh1t falls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Executive Sadman Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 As far as Cameron, Blair etc are concerned everything is going to plan. Get ready for the next phase of misinterpreted Neo Keynesianism: The complete shifting of public to private sector the burden of employing people to drill and fill in holes. What's that great HPC platitude about deck chairs and the Titanic again? Nothing at all to do with distracting from the main issue. Delightful, isnt it? The corporatist marxists in Con HQ think (probably rightly) if we privatize services, all those fearful of big govt will be relieved and put at ease. Wrong. ALL these 'private' companies still operate under state monopoly. All these private housebuilders are nothing without planning permissions and credit created and issued by state monopolies. The market is anything but private. Private ownership alone does not a free market make. Privatization is nothing of the sort, Feudalization would be a more accurate description. The control and coercion is still there, but the monopoly has had its legal status changed. That is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Peter Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Delightful, isnt it? The corporatist marxists in Con HQ think (probably rightly) if we privatize services, all those fearful of big govt will be relieved and put at ease. Wrong. ALL these 'private' companies still operate under state monopoly. All these private housebuilders are nothing without planning permissions and credit created and issued by state monopolies. The market is anything but private. Private ownership alone does not a free market make. Privatization is nothing of the sort, Feudalization would be a more accurate description. The control and coercion is still there, but the monopoly has had its legal status changed. That is all. Isn't it a form of fascism - corporatism? The state sells the natural monopolies to corporations, effectively mixing the state and corporations. Due to the essential nature of the services, the state can't allow the corporations to fail, so the two become entwined. More prosaically, the government are desparate to get any cash in, now that they see that there won't be any significant growth, so they'll sell anything they can. Might as well do it before the IMF forces it, Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopGun Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Delightful, isnt it? The corporatist marxists in Con HQ think (probably rightly) if we privatize services, all those fearful of big govt will be relieved and put at ease. Wrong. ALL these 'private' companies still operate under state monopoly. All these private housebuilders are nothing without planning permissions and credit created and issued by state monopolies. The market is anything but private. Private ownership alone does not a free market make. Privatization is nothing of the sort, Feudalization would be a more accurate description. The control and coercion is still there, but the monopoly has had its legal status changed. That is all. Yep, someone somewhere is stroking a white pussy with delight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambie Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Yep, someone somewhere is stroking a white pussy with delight! it's Ed Balls isn't it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufflesTheGuineaPig Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 As far as Cameron, Blair etc are concerned everything is going to plan. The biggest coup the Tories have ever had, their crowning achievement in the last 100 years, was getting "New Labour" elected. A group of Tories with red hats on, pretending to be Labour, implemented conservative policies until they destroy the economy. And then the public, feeling let down by socialism, turn the the Tory party for salvation, and they, is a whirlwind of neo-conservatism, backed by a wave of popular support by fools who know know better, hand the entire nation on a plate to their wealthy friends, reversing hundreds of years of progression and returning the country to a truly feudal state. Things haven't gone wrong with the economy... they've happened exactly as intended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lorne Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 it's Ed Balls isn't it. ...I would say Red Ed ...puppy dog to the Union ...Unite.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopGun Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 it's Ed Balls isn't it. A good call, but my money is on Peter Mandelson... the sock puppet of John Inman's ghost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffy666 Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 The biggest coup the Tories have ever had, their crowning achievement in the last 100 years, was getting "New Labour" elected. A group of Tories with red hats on, pretending to be Labour, implemented conservative policies until they destroy the economy. And then the public, feeling let down by socialism, turn the the Tory party for salvation, and they, is a whirlwind of neo-conservatism, backed by a wave of popular support by fools who know know better, hand the entire nation on a plate to their wealthy friends, reversing hundreds of years of progression and returning the country to a truly feudal state. Things haven't gone wrong with the economy... they've happened exactly as intended. +999 I find it amazing that people see a government that engages in privatisation of anything it can get away with, massively deregulates the banks, refuses to build social housing, presides over large scale, long term unemployment, and uses PFI (!), gets decried as 'left wing' or socialist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishfinger Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Yep, someone somewhere is stroking a white pussy with delight! What I'm doing with my wife tonight is none of your business... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Game_Over Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 How can a country where the state makes up more than 50% of the economy be described as anything other than Socialist Free education Free Health Care Free Housing Free Food, beer and fags Hardly Capitalism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderpup Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 One possibility is that Tories believe in the most debased form of free market thinking - that what’s good for the individual must always be socially optimal. This is the reality- Cameron and Co, seem to be running a neo liberal subroutine based on the delusion that it makes sense to aggregate the behaviour of the individual as a template for the whole economy. This would be like trying to deduce the behaviour of an ants nest by following a single ant around all day, watching what it does- and then saying that the entire ant colony simply replicates this pattern- no serious scientist would take this seriously- except economists and those who have swallowed their nonsense whole. Contrary to Thatcher's claim there is such a thing as society- and it exhibits the kind of complex emergent behaviours that seem to constantly trip up the Condem's as they attempt to nudge their way to success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderpup Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Free educationFree Health Care Free Housing Free Food, beer and fags Hardly Capitalism. True- you left out the part where all the speculators who enriched themselves by taking huge risks got bailed out when their bets went bad. That's Capitalism- or so we are told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone_Twin Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) The only thing cameron and co are guilty of is crediting the populace with a modicum of intelligence. After 13 years of bullying and nannying by labour our infantilised country is no longer capable of listening to the words people say, appraising them and acting on them sensibly. If you listen to the actual things said they are entirely sensible. Of course it does give the weak minded and labour apologists the excuse to flap about blaming the government for the actions of several hundred thousand people. Edited March 30, 2012 by Lone_Twin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traktion Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Take your pick. That's the main problem with modern politics. They confuse majority opinion with morality, then attempt to apply it to everyone, regardless of their opinion about it. There are few almost universally accepted moral principles, but modern politics is devoid of any and is full of double standards. They tell you not to steal, then steal much of your stuff. They tell you not to kill, then go around the world starting wars. They tell you not to counterfeit, then run the printers until they are dry. The list goes on. It is one law for one person and another for someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traktion Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Delightful, isnt it? The corporatist marxists in Con HQ think (probably rightly) if we privatize services, all those fearful of big govt will be relieved and put at ease. Wrong. ALL these 'private' companies still operate under state monopoly. All these private housebuilders are nothing without planning permissions and credit created and issued by state monopolies. The market is anything but private. Private ownership alone does not a free market make. Privatization is nothing of the sort, Feudalization would be a more accurate description. The control and coercion is still there, but the monopoly has had its legal status changed. That is all. The problem is, private ownership spans many configurations. If there are natural monopolies, giving them to the state and hoping that voting once every 4 years will help seems like a poor option. IMO, cooperatives and mutuals are a much better idea, where people actually own shares in the company and influence how it is run. It seems we are often presented with a false dichotomy of either state ownership or non-mutual private ownership. Neither is good when monopolies are present as neither gives the public a genuine say in how they're run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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