Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Brown returns to his old habits

Brown has tried to kick the habit, but his addiction to big spending government keeps pulling him back. He can't go straight.

Between 1997 and 2005, Brown added 681,000 to the public sector payroll; an increase of 13 percent. Then, he tried to roll back this huge increase. In the following two years, public sector employment fell back by 108,000.

However, the financial crisis provided the perfect cover for returning to his own big spending ways. During the last nine months of 2008, Brown added a further 46,000 jobs.

So while the private sector is shedding jobs, the public sector is growing. In the long run, this means a heavier tax burden on firms and households.

5 comments:

  1. Its boomtime for government. Why does that not surprise me.

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  2. I'd be very suprised if public sector employment fell in that period. I read the job ads and I remember it going up like a train.

    I'd suggest the figures need more careful examination.

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  3. Brown and Obama don't get it. Attempting to explain their actions through the use of basic economics is a waste of time. All they care about is income equality. They do not care about growth. You get income equality with inflation, you know. A few years of 20% inflation and all of the folks with money in the bank start to look like the ones without it.

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  4. {rant mode on}

    And when they really have to cut the head count: it will be nurses and social workers first.

    In the mean time they are stocking up on what exactly, quango senior managers, senior political advisors. All with staggering pension rights no doubt.

    It is all about growing the unproductive sector of the economy while over burdening the productive sector. The reason being to hide the unemployment.

    This is also, I suspect, why we let under qualified semi literates into universities and have the highest imprisonment levels of the western countries (and the highest reoffending rates).

    {rant mode off}

    The longer I read into economics and politics, the more convinced I am that it is about mugging the man in the street. Think clearly about inflation for a few seconds. ...

    This depression will ultimate unwind a great deal of spin and expose a great deal of stupidity. The more stupidly headstrong Brown and co are; the longer it will take and the greater the probability of a war.

    But, no, Brown believes he can get through another election if he can just keep some kind of illusion going long enough and run the accumulated national debt high enough.

    Anyways, it is good to see you're back Alice.

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  5. And when they really have to cut the head count: it will be nurses and social workers first.
    'Course they will:

    The resulting shitty state of the NHS and the long line of abused/dead children will provide the politicians with graphic arguments for More Public Spending, More Legislation and More Bureaucracy!!

    They are not solving problems, they are managing them, nurturing them even - for the benefit of themselves and their crony quango friends (who gets the loot).

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