Autumn Statement - Blame Game

[Mich the Tester]

I don't think it's fixable.
Attitudes need to change : people's sense of entitlement needs to go, what they consider a fair wage and what they consider a reasonable standard of living needs to come down, the status of some professions needs to fall and others needs to rise.
As a whole most people in the West are living beyond their means, what they create and sell doesn't justify their standard of living.

Hmm, I think that's a part of it, but I also notice a proliferation of economically unproductive or even counterproductive activities in government AND in many businesses. How many people go to work every day to inspect, control, measure, check, read forms, regulate, administer, hand out fines or other such activities instead of making or selling stuff or services that actually add value? I'm not saying we can do without regulation; clearly we need rules and inspections to ensure, for example, safety in transport and schools, hygiene in catering and hospitals and so on and we obviously need some level of administration in business, but there has to be a balance between that and the job of making and selling stuff people want to buy. When I see how much bureaucracy can be involved in simply buying a new PC or hiring a temmp at a clientco I sense that the balance has gone. I also see managers taking home HUGE bonusses while companies might not be performing demonstrably better. It's not just government that's inefficient, and it's not just people at the bottom who have a sense of entitlement.

[GreenLabel]

Osborne is giving his Autumn statement and it won't be too cheery. He will no doubt still be blaming Labour's term for the state of the economy, but surely being in for over 2 years he has to bare most, if not all, of the responsibility of the state of the economy?

Do you apply the same standard to Barack Obama?

[LatteLiberal]

Do you apply the same standard to Barack Obama?

I would, however the US economy is growing so he has been successful in his strategy.

[DimPrawn]

We're short of money are we?

£2bn of UK aid to help Third World go green - Telegraph



Vote UKIP. LibLabCon s

[GreenLabel]

Of course no one expects a debt free Britain in 2 years, however he is far of course he set himself. Most other countries are now growing, reducing the debt much quicker, by way of not cutting to quickly and stimulating via spending.

You think the problem in Britain is that spending has been cut too quickly?

[d000hg]

You think the problem in Britain is that spending has been cut too quickly?

If you try to cut spending by firing loads of people on near-minimum wage and they just end up on benefits, you haven't saved too much

[LatteLiberal]

You think the problem in Britain is that spending has been cut too quickly?

Yes, and anyone who has diverted their eyes form the Daily Mail long enough to glance at a Economics text book would agree with me.

[The Spartan]

The public are a fickle bunch that will moan regardless of who's in government, there will always be something for them to whinge about. With all the coverage that has been given to large corporations avoiding tax the cretins think it's really simple to change, given the vast amount of resources these companies have at their disposal I think not.

I bet Amazon sales are still doing well just goes to show how full of hot air the public are.

[KentPhilip]

I would, however the US economy is growing so he has been successful in his strategy.

What do you expect - he's borrowed to spend more just to get through the election. A temporary boost.. It'll all go rapidly down hill from here.

The problem in the UK is that spending has not been cut anything like enough. The tories are currently spending much more than they were when they were booted out of office in 1997, even adjusting for inflation.
So it is no surprise that the economy is not recovering 2 years on from taking over from Labour - far from trying to fix the economy they've carried on the very spending that caused all the problems.

[Doggy Styles]

Doesn't every incoming government say that?

No. That's what WE were saying on these forums. The rest of my post stated that the government DIDN'T say that.