OT - Governments war on the NHS - Tory's first casualty
Comments
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snailracer wrote:hmbadger wrote:...snailracer wrote:...
To an outsider, our economy is mostly based on lending investment money to foreigners and living off the interest they pay us. We stopped making things foreigners would buy long ago. The silly house prices are a silly game we play amongst ourselves. As I work in manufacturing, I wish it was otherwise.
But we manufacture plenty do we not? We're still about the 6th largest manufacturing country in the world.
I'm not an economist, but, if I am reading it right, only rank 10th for exports:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... os/uk.html
But we don't export everything we manufacture. Are any other countries stupid enough to buy Jade Goody memorial plates?
Edit: And there are 21 more populated nations than us, yet all but 5 (or 9) manufacture less than us, despite the fact that less than a quarter of our GDP comes from manufacturing.0 -
bails87 wrote:snailracer wrote:hmbadger wrote:...snailracer wrote:...
To an outsider, our economy is mostly based on lending investment money to foreigners and living off the interest they pay us. We stopped making things foreigners would buy long ago. The silly house prices are a silly game we play amongst ourselves. As I work in manufacturing, I wish it was otherwise.
But we manufacture plenty do we not? We're still about the 6th largest manufacturing country in the world.
I'm not an economist, but, if I am reading it right, only rank 10th for exports:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... os/uk.html
But we don't export everything we manufacture. Are any other countries stupid enough to buy Jade Goody memorial plates?
Edit: And there are 21 more populated nations than us, yet all but 5 (or 9) manufacture less than us, despite the fact that less than a quarter of our GDP comes from manufacturing.
As for our export performance ranked by population, I don't really consider populous but undeveloped countries (eg The Philippines) a reasonable basis for comparison.0 -
actually that's not correct.
If you spend money that improves productivity or frees up resources to go elsewhere then the UK does become richer.
For example a decent road between London and say the ports in Suffolk enables an increase in economic activity to happen whereas spending the same money on council inspectors to check school catchments areas doesn't.
That's why people object to the many non-jobs in the public sector. If you put that money into infrastructure or skills then you get a multiplier effect. Spending money on council leaflets doesn't.0 -
symo wrote:Errrrr Gordon Brown was a full on left wing socialist before the New Labour get into power at any cost remit.Never presume anything as I am a lifelong Tory, my personal politics are of a paternal state a la Whitelaw if you must know.As for the global crash, proven to have started in the UK at a US investment bank. But then again I am just spouting information on the internet for the sake of it.
So I have to assume that what GB did, the Tories would have done if they had been in power. Personally I was opposed to pretty much every act of the Blair/GB government throughout their whole sorry period in power.Read "Fantasy Island" and then come on and have a reasoned and well argued debate.0 -
davmaggs wrote:actually that's not correct.
If you spend money that improves productivity or frees up resources to go elsewhere then the UK does become richer.
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What you are describing is how best to use the resources that are already in the country. International trade is about the movement of resources (currency, gold, etc.) from one country to another, for which it is possible to say one country is getting richer while another is getting poorer on an absolute basis. You are talking efficiency whereas I am talking quantity, and of course in reality there is some degree of linkage between those two concepts.0 -
Porgy wrote:As for the global crash, proven to have started in the UK at a US investment bank. But then again I am just spouting information on the internet for the sake of it.
So I have to assume that what GB did, the Tories would have done if they had been in power. Personally I was opposed to pretty much every act of the Blair/GB government throughout their whole sorry period in power.
You can ban lending but that would end capitalism as we know it. We tried some other "-ism"s but they didn't work out too well, either.
Disasters are inevitable no matter how we do things. Life is pain.0