Comments on: The State Of The British Economy http://johnsadventures.com/archives/2009/01/the-state-of-the-british-economy/ The personal website of John Conners, a Scotsman living in Yorkshire who loves photography and writes software for a living Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:45:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John Conners http://johnsadventures.com/archives/2009/01/the-state-of-the-british-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-15242 John Conners Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:31:10 +0000 http://www.johnsadventures.com/?p=1375#comment-15242 Ha ha! I'd be interested to see the reply! Ha ha! I’d be interested to see the reply!

]]> By: John Topley http://johnsadventures.com/archives/2009/01/the-state-of-the-british-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-15241 John Topley Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:16:03 +0000 http://www.johnsadventures.com/?p=1375#comment-15241 <blockquote>So if Communism doesn’t work and neither does Capitalism, and we’re agreed that the Star Trek world is some way off yet, then what does that leave?</blockquote> Dunno, but I'll ask on <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/" rel="nofollow">Stack Overflow</a>! ;-)

So if Communism doesn’t work and neither does Capitalism, and we’re agreed that the Star Trek world is some way off yet, then what does that leave?

Dunno, but I’ll ask on Stack Overflow! ;-)

]]> By: John Conners http://johnsadventures.com/archives/2009/01/the-state-of-the-british-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-15240 John Conners Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:10:43 +0000 http://www.johnsadventures.com/?p=1375#comment-15240 Ha ha, my first thought was that you could have written this as a blog entry yourself! ;) You're right though, the attitude of buy now, pay and think about it later seems to be the norm but personally I prefer to save up for things first and buy them when I can afford them. Maybe that makes us dinosaurs but it's just common sense to me. So if Communism doesn't work and neither does Capitalism, and we're agreed that the Star Trek world is some way off yet, then what does that leave? Anarchy? Some might argue that the warning signs are already there... Ha ha, my first thought was that you could have written this as a blog entry yourself! ;)

You’re right though, the attitude of buy now, pay and think about it later seems to be the norm but personally I prefer to save up for things first and buy them when I can afford them. Maybe that makes us dinosaurs but it’s just common sense to me. So if Communism doesn’t work and neither does Capitalism, and we’re agreed that the Star Trek world is some way off yet, then what does that leave? Anarchy? Some might argue that the warning signs are already there…

]]> By: John Topley http://johnsadventures.com/archives/2009/01/the-state-of-the-british-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-15239 John Topley Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:04:33 +0000 http://www.johnsadventures.com/?p=1375#comment-15239 On some fundamental level I don't really understand how Capitalism is supposed to work. My Dad was an accountant and he always used to say "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be"* and that's how I was brought up. Fortunately for capitalism, others had different ideas, otherwise without borrowing or lending the whole concept wouldn't have got off the ground! Where was I going with this? Oh yes, so even now I find the idea of spending more than you earn to be quite shocking (my mortgage excepted) and yet that seems to be considered the norm now and not just on a personal level; every country is in debt to every other country. Even the U.S, the only remaining global superpower and for so long the powerhouse of capitalism has a national debt of (at the second of writing) $10,633,588,627,721 and it turns out that $320 billion of that is owed to the UK! The numbers are so large as to be meaningless and you wonder who keeps track of it all and enforces it, but I do remember hearing the other year that the U.K. had only recently finished off paying its WWII debts to the U.S, so there obviously are arrangements in place for these debts to get paid back. So we have a system where every country is hopelessly in debt and yet life generally carries as normal. What sort of model is that? If I were to get hopelessly in debt as an individual then eventually bailiffs would come round and start taking my possessions away and I could end up in prison, but no-one seems to mind when you scale that problem up. The other thing that surprises me is that lots of people seem genuinely shocked by the current crisis, even though history shows time and time again that these things are cyclical. It's all doom and gloom in the media at the moment, but you know damn well that house prices will be rocketing upwards again in about five years. So Capitalism doesn't really work that well and Communism wasn't much fun. The sad fact is that if as a species we could only "get over" money then there are more than enough resources for everyone in the world to have a comfortable life. I guess we're not ready for a Star Trek existence yet. Oh, I could've have written this response on my own blog. Damn! <em>* I've just looked up the origin of "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be" and it turns out to be from Hamlet!</em> On some fundamental level I don’t really understand how Capitalism is supposed to work. My Dad was an accountant and he always used to say “Neither a borrower, nor a lender be”* and that’s how I was brought up. Fortunately for capitalism, others had different ideas, otherwise without borrowing or lending the whole concept wouldn’t have got off the ground!

Where was I going with this? Oh yes, so even now I find the idea of spending more than you earn to be quite shocking (my mortgage excepted) and yet that seems to be considered the norm now and not just on a personal level; every country is in debt to every other country. Even the U.S, the only remaining global superpower and for so long the powerhouse of capitalism has a national debt of (at the second of writing) $10,633,588,627,721 and it turns out that $320 billion of that is owed to the UK! The numbers are so large as to be meaningless and you wonder who keeps track of it all and enforces it, but I do remember hearing the other year that the U.K. had only recently finished off paying its WWII debts to the U.S, so there obviously are arrangements in place for these debts to get paid back.

So we have a system where every country is hopelessly in debt and yet life generally carries as normal. What sort of model is that? If I were to get hopelessly in debt as an individual then eventually bailiffs would come round and start taking my possessions away and I could end up in prison, but no-one seems to mind when you scale that problem up. The other thing that surprises me is that lots of people seem genuinely shocked by the current crisis, even though history shows time and time again that these things are cyclical. It’s all doom and gloom in the media at the moment, but you know damn well that house prices will be rocketing upwards again in about five years.

So Capitalism doesn’t really work that well and Communism wasn’t much fun. The sad fact is that if as a species we could only “get over” money then there are more than enough resources for everyone in the world to have a comfortable life. I guess we’re not ready for a Star Trek existence yet.

Oh, I could’ve have written this response on my own blog. Damn!

* I’ve just looked up the origin of “Neither a borrower, nor a lender be” and it turns out to be from Hamlet!

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