Virus of Austerity

Virus of Austerity.

A virus is a packet of genetic material that has the ability to reproduce and develop itself but to do this it is reliant on invading a host body, taking over the replication function in living cells. They are not considered an independent life form as it has no internal self propagating ability of its own, yet its vitality and adaptability is renowned, as is its ability to hide in a body structure to be a storehouse eventually manifest as a visible pathogen. In suitable cases the body may be a receptacle as a carrier, in others the body may be subsequently killed, some bodies may self heal, in some there may be a prescribed cure but increasingly the cures are becoming ineffective, reliant as they are on ageing methods.

The break out infection of 2008 gathers pace. It has not been defeated. It has not been quarantined. Carriers have not been constrained. It has not been sequenced to understand its composition. There is no discernible long term cure and the short term anti viral cover of QE is of diminishing effectiveness to the body financial.  It has now morphed from CC into a systemic virus, one that will slowly incapacitate the economic body and eviscerate the foolish policy of slash and burn of the undeserving, a policy created to serve the comfort of the deprived wealth. It is becoming a singular pathogen in its own right successfully morphing in its austerity profile recognisable in the strangulating degradation of all areas of the public good.

In times of development and exploitive opportunity, being ascetic is not generally the state of human existence. There may be a few that see the need to be of a moderate temperament, to be careful towards future requirements, to garner some resources for unknown effort whilst available however while there is plenty of scope to be prolific and abundantly satisfied with greed and avarice to consume all that can be obtained in benign times, little thought is evidenced to the stability of the consumable bounty nor to its source of manifestation.

It is in some way considered, that the good times are retreating due to the naturally development of modern civilisation, moving from the period of usable accessible resources, easy exploitation and marketability.  Possibly what this country fails to grasp is the harsh fact that the UK economy is bust. This unpalatable reality for obvious reasons is not something that neither politics nor economist will wish to sanction but on a straight current asset forced sale basis the country is living on fiat money and promissory notes of uncertain value. Of course this is not a situation that is just peculiar to the UK.  It is one that could be argued is a situation that is endemic within the largest global operation economies. The UK growth potential is now severely restricted by the past lack of productive investment in industry, science, skill retention, infrastructure and social capital. It has been taken down the path towards economic perdition by the short term self interest of political institution not willing to consider the need for a strategic command type economy in some areas and maintain an equitable tax structure that reflects an essential self sufficiency doctrine to enable maintenance and development of civil society with productive capacity that pays its way. For too long generous beneficial laxity has been given to a select cadre of individual and corporate structure in the belief that the ‘payoff’ is derived in employment, tax receipts, capital asset investment. Too much government intent has held to the policy that ‘it does not matter who builds or owns the assets of production providing the country (government) has the use of it’. This policy was built on the desire to hide the constricting pain of lost productive ability in the face of “market supremacy - globalisation”  and avoid taking on increase of PSBR, debt and deficit hence this effective negation policy also led directly to the rush to privatisation ‘sell-offs’ and extortionate PFI’s to fill the gap of falling investments. This is the collapse of the UK’s ability to fund it own future.

Any number of past investment opportunity failures point to the collapse but of late one in particular is the Chinese ‘investment’ to build a nuclear power station, the practical fawning obsequies, offered to them to buy into the UK’s urgent need, has to be a startling check. Why not ask the USA, our favoured special relationship cousin? The reason is that the usa is not a command economy, its government cannot order the investment by its industrial conglomerates to the uk. By any measure the out-turn cost of such an offloaded investment is extraordinary expensive possible only by pushing into the future its financing and guaranteeing a no loss situation to the ‘investors’ all to avoid the pressure on the deficit precipice even though it would be considerable cheaper and safer to carry the cost nationally. 

Due to the obsessive need to build an election bribe financial base from the hoped for debt/deficit cycle reduction by 2020, there is a virus being launched against the structures of social civic good and particularly the disfranchised, the poor – working poor or not, the sick, disabled, and general wasters that sponge of the hard working tax payers. The state wants to re-educate them into the new doctrine of help yourself, and (as JFK said) ‘don’t ask what the country can do for you ask what you can do for the country’, an anomic situation obviously but inflicted on them for their own good of course. It will be a slow corrective position but the rewards of financial rectitude for both this group of wasters and the state’s taxpayer will be substantial with obvious benefits to the debt and deficit abyss. This is a simplistic policy drive, it is a wish of blind ignorance over obscuration of manipulated government policies not willing to recognise the reactive pressure that the will be expressed by the financially oppressed and this in its-self will requires dipping into any ‘reserve’ funds to pay for a clean up when it happens, it will be far too late to put this particular destructive pathogen genie back into the anxiety pressure pot.

The virus is no longer wrapped in the mantle of attempting to gain relief from the growing debt and deficit, it is in the attitude that has become live in the visceral dialogue that permeates some elements of the media, the privileged and often seen gleefully conjoined by numbers of elected members to denigrate and vilify anyone not of them, notably anyone gaining benefits from the state financial resources. There is very little deviation from the structured and promulgated message of this austerity virus to question the value of state support in any form to the designed undeserving and this includes the aged pensioners. This derogatory stance is hardly challenge by financially comfortable people. It is vigorously ridiculed when confronted by the official opposition and charities are threatened when they point out the fallout of the increasing consequences they see. This virus of austerity being inflicted on to the less able of the country is another example of the abomination of the self serving policies of the conservative party unable to release their grasping avarice with those that have ample financial resource and those that seek to aspire to hold onto it and achieve a similar privilege position. The target of re-educating expectations by de-constructing the safety nets of social support is unlikely to be reversed even though there should be an investigation into the cause of the virus, the parasites that continue to flourish in the austerity flux and to examine the root causes; it is too difficult, too dangerous, too destabilising to the status quo. The virus grows.

Due to the variation of the so called economic cycle, sometimes linked to the global / international trading patterns but more likely match locally by the mismanaging of national economics; the current use of austerity or the idea of ‘tightening one belly’ to rebalance the books, is a recurring theme in politics and in the past has been done with the manipulation of government capital and revenue spending programs, import / export control, capital control, interest rate and tax take. These tools are no longer seen of great use, they are seen as being of unnecessary interference, unacceptable to intergovernmental trading relations and so the UK is left with the simplistic austerity scalpel of financial retrenchment.

The Osborne mantra of “low tax, low welfare, high wage”, higher productivity that the economy needs depends on unobtainable resource generating assets. Achieving the debt deficit reduction using the outmoded reliance of the ‘market’ and austerity pain will only delay the inevitable systemic infection, a benign cure for this is virtually impossible.

The UK has developed a reliance on a low income workforce. It has been shown that for decades the pay divide has grown too great, wages paid by employers has not kept pace with inflation; there has been an insidious long term downward pressure on wages in most productive and service sectors due to imported labour. The much hyped increase in employment and the form of job creation that has been seen is all in the low wage service sectors, self employed part time and for zero hours slavery usurers. Industry and commerce has found this cheap labour cost beneficial and can be seen in the reduction in investment in productive capacity. Government have over time chosen to ignore the implications of a low wage economy to now realise that some £90bn pa is extracted from treasury to support industrial low wages. This subsidy is a way of avoiding considerable higher unemployment that would result if industry were forced to pay a living wage. In the face of potentially harsh shareholder pressure and reduced profits, with external competition and special pleading by industry, it will argue that it is uneconomical to pay a living wage, it will dispose of labour. Then who consumes when they have nothing to consume with?  

The increased cheap labour market the UK has created will be entrenched. In order to be competitive in a world market, the lowest cost of productive output is required. Without the major element of this cheap disposable labour neither will investment takes place to raise productivity. The old economic cures for an ageing economy are no longer working, they have had their day, the established economic models are proven to be unreliable and in some respects are broken and after the virus of austerity has done its task, the uk will not be in a position to reclaim elements of the social good.

There are, on the way, one of two dynamic cures available to this virus of austerity, its systemic cohort attitudes and its pathogens; far better to command one than have the other enforced, a condition that will be faced by other similar nations as well. So is it now that there are too many people chasing too few jobs or just too many people to be useful or productive? What does one do with the surplus numbers? Let the unhindered virus do its worst for all of us or turn the segregated into (1973) soylent green?

© Renot 2015

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