Sorry to be a bore but *practically* as opposed to ideally ‘free markets’ is big fish eat the little ones, centralising economic resources. Ownership has never been more concentrated than now with a tiny number of plutocrats having more political and economic clout than any political faction. To quote billionaire usurer and political activist Larry Fink: “Covid Climate Racial Justice: the three great issues of our time”.
Fifty years ago when England was supposed to be ‘socialist’ according to ‘free market’ ideologues, when families living in their own home or renting from the council on a single income, in properties that higher status professionals can’t afford today on two incomes even without children, most shops on the High Street were owned by the man whose name was above the door, who’d likely be on the premises if not actually serving you.
Now every High Street is identical, a direct effect of ‘liberal’ reforms. Which also killed the English pub/local whose existence depended on the tied-house system whereby pubs that couldn’t survive independently remained economically viable. That system was destroyed in the name of ‘free markets’. You have to be 55+ now to have known a true English pub/local. Pubs were everywhere, their names reminded the English who they were, like the coinage abolished a few years earlier.
We pay ‘interest’ to usurers in glass towers on ‘loans’ instead of ‘rent’ to bureaucrats in return for what is quaintly called ‘ownership’, so a property can’t be ‘repossessed’. No single reform has been more ruinous for England than the ‘free market’ ‘deregulation’ especially in property as buying a house came to be regarded as an ‘investment’ rather than a home, as it was for our forebears. In the words of my old college teacher Roger Scruton, growth killed England.
Anti-capitalist Little Englander Chesterton was on the money writing a century ago: “Bolshevism and Big Business are very much alike; they are both built on the truth that everything is easy and simple if once you eliminate liberty. And the real irreconcilable enemy of both is what may be called Small Business.”
Wow. I lived the first 40 yrs of my life in a socialist country, with the Red Army present in each and every town. 7th of November was a national holiday, and in all the schools, all the workplaces there were celebrations held. And yes, we had to sing the anthem of the URSS. What a humiliaton. I am happy to hear this new version!
however, "We are far right now" is unbeatable! It expresses con precisión and wit the changes which are only comparable to the reversal of the Earth's magnetic axis. Greetings and thanks for that.
It never gets old. . .
Thank you
Sorry to be a bore but *practically* as opposed to ideally ‘free markets’ is big fish eat the little ones, centralising economic resources. Ownership has never been more concentrated than now with a tiny number of plutocrats having more political and economic clout than any political faction. To quote billionaire usurer and political activist Larry Fink: “Covid Climate Racial Justice: the three great issues of our time”.
Fifty years ago when England was supposed to be ‘socialist’ according to ‘free market’ ideologues, when families living in their own home or renting from the council on a single income, in properties that higher status professionals can’t afford today on two incomes even without children, most shops on the High Street were owned by the man whose name was above the door, who’d likely be on the premises if not actually serving you.
Now every High Street is identical, a direct effect of ‘liberal’ reforms. Which also killed the English pub/local whose existence depended on the tied-house system whereby pubs that couldn’t survive independently remained economically viable. That system was destroyed in the name of ‘free markets’. You have to be 55+ now to have known a true English pub/local. Pubs were everywhere, their names reminded the English who they were, like the coinage abolished a few years earlier.
We pay ‘interest’ to usurers in glass towers on ‘loans’ instead of ‘rent’ to bureaucrats in return for what is quaintly called ‘ownership’, so a property can’t be ‘repossessed’. No single reform has been more ruinous for England than the ‘free market’ ‘deregulation’ especially in property as buying a house came to be regarded as an ‘investment’ rather than a home, as it was for our forebears. In the words of my old college teacher Roger Scruton, growth killed England.
Anti-capitalist Little Englander Chesterton was on the money writing a century ago: “Bolshevism and Big Business are very much alike; they are both built on the truth that everything is easy and simple if once you eliminate liberty. And the real irreconcilable enemy of both is what may be called Small Business.”
I think you would enjoy Crony Capitalism Will Not Be Tolerated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhLupSsmEEs
Bloody great laugh🤣
thank you :)
Brilliant - I want this sung at the proms.
If only
…too many fingers.
Maybe I shoudl have said the middle finger
Jackpot!
Sweet!
I was wondering what you were going to do now that you've resigned from the World Economic Forum Klaus ! Another winner
Haha thank you
Wow. I lived the first 40 yrs of my life in a socialist country, with the Red Army present in each and every town. 7th of November was a national holiday, and in all the schools, all the workplaces there were celebrations held. And yes, we had to sing the anthem of the URSS. What a humiliaton. I am happy to hear this new version!
It's kind of better!
It is! No kidding.
however, "We are far right now" is unbeatable! It expresses con precisión and wit the changes which are only comparable to the reversal of the Earth's magnetic axis. Greetings and thanks for that.
Thank you hahaha