@Duke.
You seem to contradict yourself, the activities that the public sector have a duty to do are the glue that hold society together, because - as you point out - there may be no commercial interest, human goodwill and markets do fail - yet those activities still need to take place.
If I read in between the lines, saying the only alternative to state sponsored capitalism, socialism, is a Nazi regime is a bit far fetched!
I may be more Keynesian when it comes to macroeconomics, and if we have adopted the bancor we may not have been in this mess, but hey ho, we need to deal with the situation as best we can. wholesale reform of the NHS, privatising education and other core functions of the state whilst laying off hundreds of thousands of people is not the way to go in my opinion.
I think the shock will come when the vast majority of people around this rather prosperous area realise that their pensions are not what they once were, fuel and subsistence prices are rising, property prices are falling and actually they are being kicked repeatedly whilst Bob diamond is taking a £9,000,000 bonus each year and the current government are allowing tax evasion from the likes of Phillip Green.
Vodaphones unpaid tax = £6bn. Cuts announced in the emergent budget = £6.2bn.
(does 'Nazi' invoke godwins law?)
No contradiction at all, Andy. Markets fail and that is where the state comes in. We pay a tax to ensure we don’t have freeloading, ensure everyone has access to the rule of law, some antisocial actions are discouraged but that is about it. Markets generally work brilliantly.
In Manchester the council were getting involved in areas that a local authority should not dabble. It’s received huge amounts of money in the past and it’s been wasted. The fact the some complain that Manchester has a lot of deprived areas suggests that after 18 years of receiving bumper sums of money from central govt, Manchester has failed to use it effectively. Not surprising when the leader is such a self-centred fool who’s been promoted way over his own ability.
Whilst I agree with Keynes in many ways, I do think his work sadly was interpreted very badly by the Scottish PM and that more than Kenynesianism perse is why the Scottish PM made such mistakes.
I don’t agree with the idea of a bancor, I suppose the Euro is as close as we’ll get to that and that’s been a failure. Economies need buffers, those buffers are currency, labour costs etc, take that away and only the richest areas will thrive.
Keynes I believe had a point, spend on infrastructural projects in times of depression, repay debt & create reserves in times of growth. The Scottish PM never understood this and hence spent regardless. The Scottish PM was not a stupid man but was terribly flawed.
I think what is misunderstood of Keynes is that whilst he did advocate spending in order to stimulate growth, there is not one page in the general theory that suggests we should spend money on unnecessary services that will not create future wealth or comparative advantage. That is why cuts to council services are acceptable when on the other hand investment soars in high speed rail projects, M1 widening, A1(m) extensions etc. This is proper Keynesian stimulus and the coalition government should be congratulated for this.
As for Vodafone, I’m not a tax accountant and am quite impressed at your ability to understand the intricacies of the way tax can be avoided. Having that sort of understanding must land you some incredible cases and earn a huge wage in doing so. All I can say, hats off to you, Andy, would you look at my tax returns?
