No political party would dare to cut deeply into current government spending, and Burnham has already said welfare comes before defence
Andy Burnham has said an uplift in defence spending will not come “at the expense” of benefits.
The only way that this will end will be by a financial crisis. No one would vote for what is needed. Burnham is trapped by the left wing of the Labour Party who just shout ‘tax the rich’, ‘wealth tax’ while ignoring the number of rich people leaving the country.
It’s shocking when you look at the number just how far the UK and Europe are falling behind. The US stock market capitalization has grown to about $70trillion and UK’s sits at about $4trillion. Taxes are too high, social safety net programs are unsustainable, regulations make it difficult to start and do business, and capital is moving elsewhere. A healthy and vibrant European economy benefits the the US. I wish they would figure it out. Like you said, the low hanging fruit is simply tax the rich, at least until you run out of them.
So what? Growth isn’t everything. We fuel growth on debt, and lots of it. It’s easy to grow if you put everything on your VISA card. That was the criticism way back in the 80s, and it’s still valid now. The European area’s debt to GDP ratio is roughly 2/3 ours.
Put taxes where they should be (i.e. reduce deficits), and watch US growth slow to a trickle. Which is fine. You can’t grow to infinity. I’ve always questioned the emphasis on growth for that reason. If we continue this way, we’re going to fall off the cliff.
They have been using their credit cards. But, as I said, they only use theirs about 2/3 (relative to GDP) as we do. There’s responsible usage of credit, and then there’s what we do. We are mainlining Red Bull, and when we crash it is really going to crash. Europe is just doing coffee.
We’ve had 40 years of economic and tax policy that has benefited the rich at the expense of the middle class. You can get quit rich, at least until you run out of other people’s money.
We’ve had 250 years of a magnificent experiment. We continue to evolve and better our society, slowly but surely. Even the poorest among us, they live better than most around the world and certainly better than past generations in the US. Today, of all days, is an important one to be grateful to just be alive and remember those that didn’t survive 25 years ago.
It’s far from perfect but the constant whining is tiresome. The truth is where the govt has intervened the most is where prices have often become the most out of whack. The poor and society in general in this country have benefited the most from those pursuing their ambitions and in turn making life a little better for the rest of us.
Maybe not? The present administration is forcing other nations to exclude us in their planning. We are no longer a reliable trading partner, so they are making other arrangements.
We’re still a huge force in the global economy. However, we are diminishing ourselves (and ceding a lot to China). The biggest problem I see is other nations that own our debt. Some of them are dumping it, according to an article a read a month or two ago. Which will probably lessen their exposure to our crashing.
