Philosophy Tube’s most recent episode explains “austerity” in the context of the UK’s public services and I gotta say, what an absolutely dumb shit, quintessentially British way to cannibalize your own society.
It really is very stupid and short-sighted. And, of course, driven by people who see all government spending as a cost rather than an investment. When it inevitably causes the economy to stall, they then think the problem is that they’re still spending too much, rather than not enough. The Tories also think they’re taxing too much, when in reality they’re not taxing enough.
While I think it is possible for governments to spend money in wasteful and frivolous ways, so more spending is not necessarily better, spending on health, housing, transport, education, etc definitely isn’t wasteful or frivolous. They’re investments that pay for themselves, often in invisible ways that don’t become obvious until decades later.
They really struggle to understand that all businesses have departments that consume money and departments that generate profit (cost centres and profit centres); not every part of the system makes money, but the parts that do (Sales) need the support of departments that don’t (Human Resources, Accounts, Legal) - get the balance right and you have a resilient organisation that will do well.
Public spending and the public sector are a bit like the cost centres of a business. Having high quality public education, healthcare and transport creates and supports an environment in which free enterprise has access to a skilled, healthy and mobile workforce; the profits naturally follow. Balance that properly with appropriate taxation and the system trundles on…
Absolutely agreed! I feel this is especially visible with the public transport sector. The British government seems convinced that buses and trains ought to be profit-making on their own, to the point that “unprofitable” routes get cancelled, cutting off entire communities from the nearest town. When in reality, public transport should be considered a cost centre, which “loses” money when run, but enables profit elsewhere. I actually wonder whether the widespread issues of town centre demise would still be a problem if there was adequate public transport to make going shopping locally quicker than waiting for Amazon to deliver it, and shops with businesses in them would surely be better for the economy than empty shops…
Luckily most people still see what they are doing to the NHS and think it’s bullshit but some think the other “advantages” the Tories “provide” outweighs that disadvantage, and no I don’t see Labour changing course on trying to privatise the NHS either.
The NHS has been in trouble for a very long time and politicians see that as a good thing.
Nothing good in the history of mankind has ever come from conservatism. Nothing at all.
