Where have all the ideas gone?

We seem to be living through a series of political and economic crises. Liz Truss, our last leader, galloped back into the Thachterite past without much regard for our current troubles. It seemed too much to expect this politician to consider current suffering as she and her chancellor inflicted more in the name of ‘growth’. Likewise Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are reviving austerity as the answer to our debt problem, even as people are struggling with bills and finding adequate healthcare and housing.

Is Labour doing any better on the ideas front? I don’t think so. Starmer seems so timid. I think of the Labour Party as ‘Tory light’. There is no point in voting for them since they will simply follow the Tory party lead. The most exciting idea at their recent conference was a national green energy company. But if it is successful, it will probably be sold off to the private sector which will exploit its assets, sack the workers and dis-invest – as has happened to so many bodies in the public sector.

So much is happening now – assaults on democracy in USA , Brazil, Russia and other Eastern block countries such as Hungary. Climate change, of course and the accompanying migrations from populations decimated by drought and floods. The early and lonely death of thousands from Covid, and the damaging consequences of the pandemic to children and their education.

Now, we are being led by an Eton educated, Goldman Sachs millionaire – apparently he will offer stability and reassurance. Has nothing changed? Are we meant to just kowtow to the City? Have we forgotten their carelessness in 2008? Why do we believe that they know what they are doing?

Is our society suffering from entropy? The rich do not circulate their wealth but save it to bequeath to their children on their death. No such thing as trickle down economics. This chronic saving sequesters money into bank accounts at home and abroad. It deprives others, especially poor young people, of opportunities to flourish by developing their own ideas. It sucks wealth, both material and intellectual, out of our society. We have become an economy of owners not producers. What is the point of an economy that does not enable the broader community to flourish?