Since the start of the financial crisis and the bank bailout, there has been a marked increase in public interest regarding executive pay. It’s not that executives didn’t earn ridiculous salaries before then, but because we were in a boom time, the economy was something most people simply took for granted. The only people asking questions back then were generally written off by the mainstream as “silly socialists who are jealous of success”. We were all sucked into the American dream, that one day it might be us up there on the top floor, calling the shots and raking in the dough. The fantasy was so lucid that even when we despised our bosses, we still dreamed of being in their shoes. There was no question about whether people at the top should earn as much as they do. With the crisis however, came the media attention on the banks, with both socialists and traditional conservatives demanding answers. (more…)
Economics
Asda’s “Job Creation” should be met with scepticism
David Cameron has praised the announcement by Asda that it will be creating approximately five thousand new jobs, as part of an expansion drive this year. The plans involve the opening of twenty-five new stores, three new depots and the refurbishment of existing stores. The supermarket also announced that it would be allowing some of the new staff to work as part of City and Guilds apprenticeships. According to Asda, half of its new employees in last year were young people, with a large number coming through the Job Centre.
Of course, all of the above sounds brilliant at face value. It’s understandable why David Cameron is pleased by this; since his government came to power, their mantra has been to cull the public sector in the belief that the private sector would expand and create jobs. It’s unsurprising that every time a private corporation creates a significant amount of jobs, he feels vindicated. The problem with that is it leads to a lack of questioning. When people believe they have been proved right, they don’t stop to ask whether that’s really the case. Cameron, desperate to see growth in the private sector to prove him right, doesn’t stop to question the details when jobs are created. (more…)
Trans-generational Mortgages in the UK?
Following my earlier comments on how we risk entering an age of neo-feudalism, I decided to investigate further the prospects of trans-generational mortgages; that is, mortgages that are taken out by one person and passed down to their children.
It has been the case for a long time that house prices have risen at a greater, almost exponential rate, in comparison to wages. Prices rose particularly greatly between 1970 and 2000, but in the interests of projecting for tomorrow, I am going to focus on statistics for 2000 to today and project to 2025. All of the historical figures used in this analysis come from the Office of National Statistics. (more…)
Neo-Feudalism
We now risk entering an era that might be best described as neo-feudalism. The children of the next generation will be divided into distinct classes, of those who own, and those who are effectively owned. One will inherit property, the other trans-generational mortgages. One will own companies and take profits, the other will work all available hours at “competitive” rates, to pay the interest on their debts, that they might lessen the burden on their children.
We may even reach the stage where the indebted effectively sign themselves over to their creditors, where the monetary chain is bypassed and work is done directly for creditors in exchange for continued subsistence. This is not an impossible conclusion to the road we have set ourselves upon.
Taking our jobs…
Reading about immigration tensions in the US and a familiarity with mass feelings here, makes me think about the nature of immigration and the concept of “taking our jobs”. The Xenophobe constantly raves about the “lazy immigrant” on one hand and yet, on the other, compains about people “coming over here and taking our jobs”.
Fundementally, the idea is almost a paradox. We live in a world, nay, a country, where there a mouths that go unfed. So when a worker arrives from afar and offers to work in this nation, for the most minimal reward, contributing his sweat to the production of food, this is apparently a bad thing? From a resource based perspective, this makes no sense: any able worker, especially one working on the land for low wages, inevitably produces more than they consume. Their efforts, in real terms, feed more mouths than just their own. Yet we reject this? (more…)
New Labour? Blue Labour? Can I get a pint of Labour Classic?
It’s very rare that people actually ask me to comment on stuff. More often, I just stick my nose in where it isn’t wanted and generally offend at least a handful of folks. Several days ago however, my good friend @sarahcritcher asked for my comment on a piece in the Independant about “Blue Labour”. Here’s my take:
Socialism is now a dirty word. It’s almost more acceptable to say you’re a BNP supporter than a Socialist. There’s an overwhelming consensus among society that Socialism is “bad” – although nobody really knows why (this is in fact, something I wish to discuss further in my upcoming book, but that’s for later). (more…)
Why public sector cuts have missed the mark
It’s been a year now since the Tory/Liberal coalition came to power in the UK. That also means nearly a year since George Osbourne’s emergency budget, which instantiated massive, broad-sweeping cuts across the public sector. In reality, it’s taken this year for the cuts to take effect. The effects are starting to bite, hitting the vunerable groups the worst. Despite this, the government maintains its line that it is “making the hard decisions” and “doing what is necessary”.
The problem is, just as the easiest option isn’t always the right one, neither is the “hardest” one. The government has decided to cut hard rather than cutting smart. It’s taken a chainsaw to a situation that required pruning scissors. That’s not to say cuts weren’t necessary, or even to decry the overall scale, but it’s the bluntness of approach that is the problem, the reason that not only will this hit hard, it won’t even work in the long run.