This is infuriating - Cameron's announcing 'the age of austerity' as though government waste has ruined us all. It hasn't. Saving the banks (Tories all) has sunk us, but Cameron's desperate not to mention his commitment to finance capitalism. It's such lazy, reactionary politics to blame big government for shortfalls - very Reaganite 1980s. We all like schools, decent hospitals and state pensions - let's be proud of paying for them.
Personally I'd have protected depositors and allowed the institutions to crash, but Brown et al decided this wouldn't be good for the economy. If goverment cutbacks are required: ID cards, nuclear weapons, the armed services in general, Department for Business (fewer businesses - fewer bureaucrats required to kiss their arses), properly nationalise trains rather than pay extortionate subsidies to franchises.
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I never understood this. When Northern Rock was going under I couldn't see why the governnment couldn't say "if you have savings they are safe, if you have a loan/mortgage it is paid, you own your house." Surely that would have been cheaper? All those people who owned their houses would have had a lot of disposable income which would have flowed into the economy too.
I suppose though if they did that then people would see little point in getting a mortgage with a 'safe' bank. The big banks would have had to offer genuinely good mortgage deals (low interest as opposed to lending indiscriminately) and how could customers having fair mortgage deals help the economy except for people having more money to spend on goods and services?
Banking is a good illustration of the problems of capitalism. It is essentially a 'service' that is being run as a 'business' and that causes a conflict of interests. Luckily for us we won't make the same mistakes with hospitals, dentists, schools, the post office, gas, electric, water, prisons, the police, coal...
oh shit.
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