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Total Debt as a Proportion of GDP
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This is why there's no point debating by facts with UKIPers
show them overwhelming evidence and they'll ignore it and try and change the subject.
Funny how the main political parties have avoided the issue of post general election austerity. There's been a black hole in the Treasury forecasts for years. No one seems interested in being truthful. I have no particular interest in any one party. At least Nigel has shaken the establishment to the core. People certainly aren't as stupid as the politicians seem to think. What's required is fresh politics with fresh ideas. The post war line of thinking has run it's course.0 -
Thrugelmir wrote: »There's been a black hole in the Treasury forecasts for years. No one seems interested in being truthful... At least Nigel has shaken the establishment to the core. People certainly aren't as stupid as the politicians seem to think.
Salmond, Mao Zedong, and to risk controversy Hitler all shook up the politics of their time.
Perhaps you'd like to explain what UKIP's plan for post-election austerity is? Because I'm pretty sure they're just as determined as everyone else not to talk about it.
People are as stupid as politicians think. We complain about politicians not being honest about tax etc before elections, but we consistently punish them for actually doing it, thus they make the rational choice. Most people's opinion on Ed Milliband has nothing to do with policy, which they don't even know, but is based on the fact he looks 'funny'; yet they love Nigel Farage who looks like a frog when he smiles and might actually be surgically attached to a pint glass! because of policies UKIP don't even have.Thrugelmir wrote: »What's required is fresh politics with fresh ideas. The post war line of thinking has run it's course.
The greens have been offering considerably 'fresher' policies for over a decade. The Libs were open about plans to increase tax and had many divergent policies for decades now.
People don't want fresh ideas, and fresh ideas aren't what UKIP is offering anyway: Matrons running hospitals, pushing for more carbon polluting energy generation...Having a signature removed for mentioning the removal of a previous signature. Blackwhite bellyfeel double plus good...0 -
Isn't automation the main cause of increased productivity?
It tends to be but it needn't be.
For example, in the fund management business I work for we had a bank doing a particular task for us for some of our funds. We paid them 2bps (0.02%) of the value of the fund to do that or ~$1,000,000 a year.
Now this task is something that we do in-house for most funds and so by bringing the task in-house for these other funds we could capture that $1,000,000 as extra revenue. Total added work (post project) would be perhaps 1 minute each month. Cost of the project? $0 in effect as the people involved were already employed by the company.
So the profit attributable to a desk in our company is up by $1mil. Profit raised in Aus is up by $1mil too as the task was being performed overseas.
That's a direct example of increasing productivity.
Increase to world productivity? $0. We've moved the profits from someone else to us. Nobody measures world productivity because they seem to think that by living in a country with borders and stuff that they are isolated from what happens elsewhere. LOL.0 -
We have to overachieve on productivity levels, or have the design edge.
38% in 20 years is disappointing, to put it mildly. It suggests we do not focus on r&d and plant investment here.
Don't forget that the UK starts from a staggeringly high level. As much as Brits like to run Britain down, she manages to run a tightrope between US-style red-toothed capitalism and European-style paternalism and very high unemployment with a remarkable degree of success.On an economic level, though, it might be very useful to have large numbers of lower paid people. I don't know. It obviously works for the emerging economies. Could it work here?
Whisper it on MSE but the point of a developed economy is consumption. We make stuff for other people so we can buy stuff off other people. It really is that simple.
If we only make and consume the basics then the economy starts to look much more like the places where they do that, eg rural Africa. Probably not the economic model most Brits aspire to.0 -
If we only make and consume the basics then the economy starts to look much more like the places where they do that, eg rural Africa. Probably not the economic model most Brits aspire to.
If we (or any collective) were able to make what was needed and what was wanted by the population would that then be the 'ideal' scenario? What raw materials are we lacking that prevents that? Bananas? I suppose that scuppers isolationism pretty much from the get go.If you think of it as 'us' verses 'them', then it's probably your side that are the villains.0 -
If we (or any collective) were able to make what was needed and what was wanted by the population would that then be the 'ideal' scenario? What raw materials are we lacking that prevents that? Bananas? I suppose that scuppers isolationism pretty much from the get go.
It's not so much what we need as what we want.
For a furrinstance, I had to have treatment for cancer recently. I had 2 incorrect diagnoses and then the treatment I had pretty much put my life on hold for 6-7 months and I lost my job as a result. Gutted.
If I had the same cancer 40 years ago I would probably have died. Best case would have been a face that was paralyzed on one side from not so good surgery techniques. I have a scar that mostly looks like a line from aging.
If the world is to remain in stasis then we have to accept that health care goes nowhere from now. Those kids I met in the cancer treatment centre have to die and so do those that come after them.
I can't see there ever being an ideal state, merely a pursuit of a better one. A medieval king would be amazed at the life of an unemployed drunk in 2014. I have no doubt that a C21st King would be equally amazed by the life of a layabout in 2600.0 -
It's not so much what we need as what we want.
For a furrinstance, I had to have treatment for cancer recently. I had 2 incorrect diagnoses and then the treatment I had pretty much put my life on hold for 6-7 months and I lost my job as a result. Gutted.
If I had the same cancer 40 years ago I would probably have died. Best case would have been a face that was paralyzed on one side from not so good surgery techniques. I have a scar that mostly looks like a line from aging.
If the world is to remain in stasis then we have to accept that health care goes nowhere from now. Those kids I met in the cancer treatment centre have to die and so do those that come after them.
I can't see there ever being an ideal state, merely a pursuit of a better one. A medieval king would be amazed at the life of an unemployed drunk in 2014. I have no doubt that a C21st King would be equally amazed by the life of a layabout in 2600.
See, I hadn't even considered progress of what we would need and want, I just considered whether or not we would even be able to self produce all our needs and wants as it stands. This basically confirms the suspicion I had that you are cleverer than me.If you think of it as 'us' verses 'them', then it's probably your side that are the villains.0 -
See, I hadn't even considered progress of what we would need and want, I just considered whether or not we would even be able to self produce all our needs and wants as it stands.
I had my needs met when I lived in a damp ridden flat in Balham in the early 90s. Did that meet my wants? Hell no.
I need a roof over my head. I want a nice city pad and a country home.This basically confirms the suspicion I had that you are cleverer than me.
Nah. If I was cleverer I'd be richerer.
You regularly express my own opinions better than I have managed!0 -
Have you seen what a flat ij Balham goes for now?I had my needs met when I lived in a damp ridden flat in Balham in the early 90s. Did that meet my wants? Hell no.
I need a roof over my head. I want a nice city pad and a country home.
Nah. If I was cleverer I'd be richerer.
You regularly express my own opinions better than I have managed!0
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