Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by stretchwithme on Sunday September 05, 2010 @05:07AM
(#1664252)
The government makes waves on the pond and directs your attention to where the water went up, distracts you from where it goes down and when boats get tipped over, it claims "no one could have seen it coming".
Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by MC27 on Sunday September 05, 2010 @07:28AM
(#1664359)
The Labour/Tory thing isn't that simple. The UK's economy is strongly focused on London. When the Tories (conservatives) are in power, most of the money goes to the South East and the rest of the country suffers really badly. When Labour are in power, they attempt to spread that wealth to the outskirts, but they aren't good at doing it, so waste a lot. They are polar opposites, each creating their own long term damage, especially to public services.
Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by gaius on Sunday September 05, 2010 @07:35AM
(#1664367)
Mmm, this is exactly my point - no-one focussed on "the next election" can safely undertake to deliberately make structural changes in the economy. The timescales are all wrong. It probably takes "a generation" to do it, 20-30 years. The best thing - for the country as a whole - for either party to do is just stop interfering. But, as is human nature, each will prioritize the interests of its core voters.
Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by MC27 on Sunday September 05, 2010 @08:06AM
(#1664389)
Perhaps the biggest opportunity the UK had was when regional parliaments were proposed for England, that would have made the central government less influential and let locals focus on their main concerns. It was poorly implemented but an interesting first step if the public had gone for it.
Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by arethuza on Sunday September 05, 2010 @08:32AM
(#1664407)
Yeah - like that has worked so well in Scotland. All it has given us is a crazily expensive extra tier of government who feel that they can spend English taxpayers money to give Scots things that the rest of the UK don't get.
And yes, I am Scottish and no I have never voted Tory (in fact I used to vote SNP until I met Alex Salmond).
Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by nanairo on Sunday September 05, 2010 @10:34AM
(#1664576)
Mostly I agree. It's a problem in democracy and it has been badly exacerbated by the speed of communication nowadays (TV and Internet mostly).
Though I think we completely disagree on the UK example. ;) (I won't get into the details because it's off topic, but I think you are quite a bit off)
Re:U.S. jobless rate hints at permanent structural change
by wake_up_sticky on Sunday September 05, 2010 @10:23AM
(#1664557)
Sounds like what you guys want is something for nothing. Unless I'm missing something...?
We see this pattern repeated again and again in the UK. The voters, sick of austerity, will vote in the high-spending Labour Party which promises all sorts of largesse. Then they'll wreck the economy with high tax and high borrowing, and voters will turn back to the fiscally responsible Tories, who will balance the books but slash spending on public services in the process. As soon as they've "fixed" the economy they'll be voted out again...
Another good example is the health service. All political parties promise to improve it. But a government lasts 5 years and it takes 8 years to train a new doctor. So rather than invest in skills, they spend the money on very visible projects like new buildings, the boast about how much they've spent, not what has actually been gotten for the money.