Institute for Fiscal Studies Forecast Decade of Pain - Guardian

carolt

Thought of standing for Parliament, Gen?

Sounds v sensible - but MPs don't do 'sensible'.

tomterm8

Generali wrote: »

I guess what needs to be done is to split Government spending into needs to be done (eg millitary), very important (eg teaching kids at the most basic level), nice to have (eg new textbooks this year) and hinderence to producing more output in the public sector (eg many target setters and monitors).

I think the most important change will have to be in attitude. People not eating enough fruit and veg? Well they should eat more of it but it's not the Government's place to spend money on trying to force them to do so.

In the 1980's, businesses flattened their management quite considerably, which caused quite a large productivity boost. I suspect that rather than talk in terms of cutting people at the front, we should be looking to repeat the 1980's reforms in the public sector.

We should set a target to remove 1/4 of the people who earn over £45,000 a year, and 1/3 of the people who earn over £150,000 a year, from the public service.

Thrugelmir

tomterm8 wrote: »

In the 1980's, businesses flattened their management quite considerably, which caused quite a large productivity boost. I suspect that rather than talk in terms of cutting people at the front, we should be looking to repeat the 1980's reforms in the public sector.

We should set a target to remove 1/4 of the people who earn over £45,000 a year, and 1/3 of the people who earn over £150,000 a year, from the public service.

and 20% of those earning under £30k

Generali

carolt wrote: »

Thought of standing for Parliament, Gen?

Sounds v sensible - but MPs don't do 'sensible'.

I'd be a terrible politician in the modern age. These days it seems that people want their politicians to be anodyne and obedient to The Party. I'd be terrible at it - I say what I think within the bounds of politeness.

I'd go for local politics to give something back to the community I lived in or possibly sit on a committee at national level if asked.

No country is ready to see Generali, MP as yet though I think although I do quite fancy being a dictator one day (seriously I do).

ruggedtoast

Reading things like this I can only wonder at the enormous economic suffering being inflicted on this country so that Gordon Brown can try and stave off house prices falling.

carolt

Generali wrote: »

I'd be a terrible politician in the modern age. These days it seems that people want their politicians to be anodyne and obedient to The Party. I'd be terrible at it - I say what I think within the bounds of politeness.

I'd go for local politics to give something back to the community I lived in or possibly sit on a committee at national level if asked.

No country is ready to see Generali, MP as yet though I think although I do quite fancy being a dictator one day (seriously I do).

I'm the same - minus the dictator bit. Local politics appeals also.

I went to Labour Club meetings at uni, but gave up once I realised that everything was 'fixed', and I had no interest in toeing a party line. As you may have guessed, I don't really like being told what to think.

A school acquaintance of mine who went to the same uni and was a pleasant, quiet sort - exactly the type who'd be more than happy to toe the party line - became head of the uni Labour Club, married into the party hierarchy and now counts Alistair Campbell and Hazel Blears among her facebook friends.

Lucky woman. :rolleyes:

Thrugelmir

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Reading things like this I can only wonder at the enormous economic suffering being inflicted on this country so that Gordon Brown can try and stave off house prices falling.

GB has no interest in house prices. More voters don't have mortgages than do.

islandannie

Generali wrote: »

It is. I'm not UK resident for tax purposes so I am Aussie in that way. I am English when the Ashes are being discussed!



Thanks very much for you kind and heartfelt words. I'm not a Doctor but I know a little about economics.

I plan to return for a holiday next year for the Lords test. It's still the best test cricket ground I've been to. Perhaps we could meet up. We'll see.

So,Doctor says let me heal the sick.

Economist says not if they can`t afford it.

Thatcherite in action.

I sincerely hope for your childrens sake you don`t run short of funds in your vision of society....

Generali

islandannie wrote: »

So,Doctor says let me heal the sick.

Economist says not if they can`t afford it.

Thatcherite in action.

I sincerely hope for your childrens sake you don`t run short of funds in your vision of society....

Not true.

The Doctor says I can heal the sick.

The Farmer says I can feed the hungry.

The economist says how do we share up all these scarce things among society? We can have more healthcare but only at the expense of less food. What is the optimum allocation of resources between food and healthcare output? There isn't a system yet that has been devised that can give everyone all of what they want or even need.

The problem at present is that the Government is taking too large a slice of the metaphorical pie. It is taking so much that it is also taking slices from future pies which are as yet unmade. That has to stop at some point and the longer it goes on, the more painful the process of adjustment as the Government will have taken even more consumption from the future and consumed today instead.

bluey890

Generali wrote: »

The economist says how do we share up all these scarce things among society? We can have more healthcare but only at the expense of less food. What is the optimum allocation of resources between food and healthcare output? There isn't a system yet that has been devised that can give everyone all of what they want or even need.

Strange. The economists I have met say how can we make money from this trend?
The optimum allocation of resource doesn't usually come into it.
How to best allocate resource is usally covered more by specialist optimisation courses than economics per se.