A left-wing economist, yesterday.
There's a theme developing. Every time anyone is asked to make a sacrifice to reduce the country's unsustainable debt burden, the response is always the same: the banks caused the crisis, so why should we pay the price? Mark Serwotka (usually one of the less unreasonable union fat cats) is the latest:
So public sector pensions are being cut not because they are unaffordable or
unsustainable but because there's a hole in the public finances. That hole was
caused by the banking crisis and the recession that resulted. It was not caused
by public spending, public sector workers or their pensions.
So? Who caused the crisis (and it's easy to blame the banks, but who was in charge of regulating them for the last ten years?) is absolutely irrelevant. If the banks had stolen the money and hidden it somewhere, then there might be some mileage in getting them to return it so that we could all enjoy the lifestyles we used to know. But they haven't. The money is gone. Pissed away, on vanity projects and buying Labour votes, gone. The grown-up thing is now to accept that there is no money left and that, as a country, we are going to have to tighten our belts considerably in order not to pass on these eye-watering debts to our grandchildren. Blaming the banks is, literally, pointless. It won't bring back a penny of the billions that Labour flushed down the toilet while boasting that they had ended boom and bust.
In the fairyland of public sector unions, the assertion that something is not your fault changes reality. Money appears from the sky, not because people have earned or saved it, but because you deserve it. It's other people's money, taxpayers' money, Tory money. It's limitless. You're not to blame, therefore no negative consequences should, or will, befall you. On that reasoning, no-one on the Titanic died except the man with the cheap binoculars. It's the world of the indulgent parent, where credit card bills are paid and car repair bills settled because you are special.There are parts of this society that will have to do a lot of growing up in the next year or two. Expect a lot more of this.
"Mark Serwotka (usually one of the less unreasonable union fat cats)..."
ReplyDeleteOh, boy. Definitely not. He's a hardliner.
Hardliner =/= unreasonable. I was thinking of him more in comparison with the Bob Crows of this world. Serwotka makes a case and can argue it; Crow is a ranting bully.
ReplyDeleteXX There are parts of this society that will have to do a lot of growing up in the next year or two. Expect a lot more of this. XX
ReplyDeleteThey only need weeks. Then the voting Untermensch retards will have fallen for it hook line and sinker, and hey presto, as I said would happen BEFORE the last general election, you will not find a single person in the country that have ever HEARD of the Conservatives, let alone VOTED for them, and labour will get in with a land slide victory.
The public sector 'pension time bomb' has been avoided for decades and really isn't to do with the banks. I'm glad that it is being addressed.
ReplyDeleteIt WILL be painful for some. There will probably be a lot of unpleasantness. But it NEEDS sorting out.
"That hole was caused by the ... recession that resulted."
ReplyDeleteDear Mr Serwotka. Unlike the private sector which suffered massive redundancies & short-time working during the recession you mention, how many public-sector workers lost their jobs?
QED.
Indeed, Joe. I spent much of 2009 on short-time working. Three-day week, three-fifths pay. I accepted it as part of the price of my employer's survival. I spent the first 18 years of my working life in the public sector, and I can tell you that they have no idea. Safe jobs, good pensions, sympathetic working hours ... Our local authority employees finish work early on a Friday, so they can 'avoid the rush'. Pah.
ReplyDelete"I was thinking of him more in comparison with the Bob Crows of this world. Serwotka makes a case and can argue it..."
ReplyDeleteOh, that's true. Though whether the case he makes could be said to be 'reasonable', as Umbongo points out, is another matter! :)
XX Our local authority employees finish work early on a Friday, so they can 'avoid the rush'. Pah. XX
ReplyDeleteThey tried that here. But thre were so many of them, the reult was the "rush" happened half an hour earlier.
@ Julia - remember I only said he was 'less unreasonable', which gives me a lot of wriggle-room. They're all bonkers, obviously.
ReplyDelete@ FT - yup, same here. You avoid Haverfordwest at about 3.30 pm on a Friday, if you value your sanity. You can't move for men in sports jackets and 'humorous' ties, and women in flat shoes and serious haircuts. The streets between County Hall and their DEDICATED CAR PARK ON PRIME TOWN CENTRE LAND THAT THE REST OF US ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE EVEN AT THE WEEKEND are particularly bad.