Matthew Parris’s brilliant articles in The Times tempt me to take on an online subscription to the newspaper. With so much free quality comment, it’s not yet worth that expense. Here’s how Matthew spreads the blame for the reason our society is in its current state.
“We have been living beyond our means. We have been paying ourselves more than our efforts were earning. We sought political leaders who would assure us that the good times would never end and that the centuries of boom and bust were over; and we voted for those who offered that assurance.
We sought credit for which we had no security and we gave our business to the banks that advertised it. We wanted higher exam grades for our children and were rewarded with politicians prepared to supply them by lowering exam standards. We wanted free and better health care and demanded chancellors who paid for it without putting up our taxes.
We wanted salacious stories in our newspapers and bought the papers that broke the rules to provide them. And now we whimper and snarl at MPs, bankers and journalists. Fair enough, my friends, but, you know, we really are all in this together.”
I presume from this piece then, that Mr. Parris goes home at night and flagellates himself, seeing as he had more influence than most on the prevailing hypocrisy.
By: Charles Flintwhistle on July 2, 2012
at 4:57 pm
I agree with Parris’ analysis. However, he misses a key point. People have always wanted the things he describe; so why didn’t they have them before?
The answer is due to regulation. Before 1979, Western governments kept a tight rein on markets. There were still booms and busts, but after 1929 they were never too deep or too high. For example, if you tried to get a mortgage in the 1970s, you would be lucky to be offered 2x your salary, and even then only on the main income in the household. Before 2008, offers of eight times salary weren’t unheard of – with the resultant inflation of house prices.
The economic theory underpinning this notion was monetarism, adopted hungrily by Reagan and Thatcher. The theory was that the market would always regulate itself, and should be freed of central control. Unfortunately, the theory was badly flawed (unless you were one of the small band of winners who made ludicrous fortunes from it). A lack of regulation led to markets spiralling out of control, and let greed create vast inequalities, with resultant social issues, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Regulation is the role of government; and successive governments since 1979 have comprehensively failed to regulate markets. This is because their sponsors do very well out of unregulated markets, and lobby hard for greater freedom – despite the danger it leaves the rest of society in.
As for “we’re all in it together”, if only this were true. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, the 1,000 richest people in Britain are worth a combined £414m. Over the past 15 years, that wealth has increased by £315bn. Those at the top – those most responsible for the current situation – are doing very well indeed thank you very much. Meanwhile wages for the rest of us stagnate, standards of living fall, and services to the neediest are cut.
By: leftoflightwater on July 2, 2012
at 8:31 pm