Second, in turn this requires that we reappraise the public / private split in the economy. This means we may need to pay more tax so better services are supplied, although other funding options are also available. But it also means that we might consume less that the private sector has to provide as a result to free the resources to make this revived public sector possible. Will that really be such a bad thing given we need to be sustainable? Policy to achieve this might be required.
For a translation of that paragraph see headline
And you will be happy, because a retired accountant in Ely knows much more about what you really need than you ever could yourself.
Sounds like a positive feeback loop to oblivion.
“we may need to pay more tax so better services are supplied,”
And if it turns out to be worse, what then?
If public services turn into feather-bedded bureaucratic empires, what is the plan to fix that?
Thirdly, what public service right now is not a feather-bedded bureaucratic empire?
First, as I argued in threads I wrote over the weekend and so will not repeat again, we need to newly reappreciate the value of public services and those who work in them
I know anyone (such as the Great Chernny Drakon) who has waited for more than 8 hours in A&E with a sick child is bursting with admiration for those responsible. And I’m sure those motorists being threatened with arrest for criticizing police sympathy for the ‘rolling walk slows’ of Just Stop Oil are over the moon with their performance. Similarly the parents who had to endure a year of home schooling because teachers were unwilling to go into their places of work. As well as those travellers facing four hour queues at airports over Christmas. I’m thinking of doing a Kevin Sinfield ‘7 Ultra marathons in seven days’ to raise money for them, as my ‘sympathetic cup runneth over’. As for those in higher education – please give them a 100% pay rise tomorrow…
Second, in turn this requires that we reappraise the public / private split in the economy. This means we may need to pay more tax so better services are supplied, although other funding options are also available. But it also means that we might consume less that the private sector has to provide as a result to free the resources to make this revived public sector possible. Will that really be such a bad thing given we need to be sustainable? Policy to achieve this might be required.
I think ironically there’s something to this observation although it’s in the exact opposite vein to his subsequent line of thinking. The realization that we pay an absolute fortune for services that in some cases (Law enforcement and education) are of a significantly lower standard than countries like North Korea (I’m guessing the Pyongyang burglary detection rate isn’t zero) is likely to lead to people realizing that we need to radically shrink the size of the state back to something nearer the 19th century. Indeed not in my lifetime but within 4 decades I can think of something along the lines of a workhouse being reinstigated for financial reasons. The sheer poverty of the ‘Net Zero’ agenda and the realization that it is actually likely to result in mass deaths from pollution and starvation is likely to cause a severe backlash against those promoting it.
Murphy seems to think that ‘tomorrow belongs to him’ but ironically as Harris rightly points out, the return of organized Labour as a factor is only really possible because of the five factors that have played out (all of which remember Murphy supports), arguably only 2 of which (you could say ‘Net Zero’ has been going on longer) being older than 3 years.
– Quantitative easing from the 2008 Financial crisis spilling over into the real economy
– The War in Ukraine
– COVID lockdowns and other disastrous policy misjudgements in response to the pandemic
– The Drive to Net Zero
– The import of a city the size of Liverpool every year through small boats and other means and the idea that the taxpayer is on the hook for these people indefinitely
Surprising turns of the wheel are common place – and he’ll still be a sad academic with wholly inadequate pension provision regardless of the political developments over the next five years.
Third, this will require something we are wholly unfamiliar with, which is is politicians who know why they are in office (which should be to make the world a better place, but rarely has been for some time) and who are able to make the decisions to achieve that goal.
I am reminded of the quote from the German philosopher, Friedrich Holderlin:
‘What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven’
If the last 4 years are an advertisment for ‘non-interventionist’ government one does truly shudder to consider what his idea of an ‘interventionist’ state might be. Whereas most sane people look at the policies being considered in Oxford and Canterbury as clinically insane, his criticism is probably they don’t micromanage enough.
I think it’s Terry Pratchett who sums the cretin up perfectly:
‘Evil in general does not sleep, and therefore doesn’t see why anyone else should.’
V_P I am full of admiration for your patience and energy. I’m also grateful to you for providing more detail because the Bison Law on Tuberous Numerology posits that the higher the number of points in a given post, the crazier the theories being postulated.
For Capt. Potato to have reached such heights of malign lunacy as early as point two and with only three points in all suggests a further sad downturn in his mental condition. Perhaps he is thinking of standing for office in the Conservative interest now that his and their policies are converging so neatly?
Another translation (and which applies to pretty much everything he writes):
“I’m an economically unproductive, grifting socialist. How else do you expect me to put bread on the table?”
I can’t help thinking that we often take the detail of what he says far too seriously?
Most people would get drunk at the weekend (if they were allowed in pubs). But the King of The Potato People labours tirelessly to save us all from ourselves.
“politicians who know why they are in office”
I keep hoping my elected politicians remember I put them there to shrink the state.
I’m confused by the potatos second point “But it also means that we might consume less that the private sector has to provide as a result to free the resources to make this revived public sector possible”.
Surely i thought in potatoland the state just printed the money and the resources just magically appeared ? But, then again logical consistency has never been one of his strongpoints.
Van_Patten
I know anyone (such as the Great Chernny Drakon) who has waited for more than 8 hours in A&E…
Awww thanks Van_Patten.
I think you’re the first to refer to me as Great.
Brought a tear to my eye. 🙂
Kind of tempted to add it to my moniker, but thought that might be too egotistical and I’m slightly more modest than a potato.
PS. mini-Drakon all recovered now as well, so hopefully we won’t be
subjected tohave the pleasure of, thetorturous inefficienciesworld class NHS any more this year.Chernyy
No worries at all. That comment on a previous thread resonated with me as my son had an adverse reaction to an injection which necessitated a 4pm trip to A&E on a Sunday. My wife headed there expecting (not unreasonably) that a service which is ‘the envy of the world’ might prioritize seeing a then 6 year old while I stayed at home with his twin sister. Nearly 9 hours later having had no food because the vending machines had broken or were empty and the canteen was closed at weekends they came home with his twin sister having gone down to sleep eventually at 10:30pm from exhaustion worried as she had no idea if he was ok. So I share your scepticism that this is the ‘only’ or the ‘best’ way to provide healthcare..
Furthermore like many of the commentators here the overall quality of the contributions is great – especially where compared with TRUK where only overt sycophancy is permitted. And even if there’s a disagreement its usually civilly conducted – so am glad mini-Drakon is fully recovered and hopefully either you can revert to BUPA or suchlike or he avoids any further health issues for the foreseeable future…
Again it’s the Murphanomics that the money creates the services. Just taken for granted.
BiS
I’m reminded of the Kipling Classic (of course deeply unfashionable and probably in his eyes racist) ‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Van_Patten,
I’ll match your Copybook Headings and raise you “The City of Brass”.
Swiftly they pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them—
The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid them
As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure with limitless entries,
And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the sentries;
And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers,
They disbanded in face of their foemen their yeomen and archers.
…
They said: “Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his neighbour?
Let him arise and control both that man and his labour.”
They said: “Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him?
He shall levy tribute from all because none have employed him.”
They said: “Who hath toiled, who hath striven, and gathered possession?
Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgression.”
As the P3 is to economics what the Great William McGonagall is to poetry, I give you:
A Tribute to Mr Murphy and the Blue Ribbon Army
by William Topaz McGonagall
All hail to Mr Murphy, he is a hero brave,
That has crossed the mighty Atlantic wave,
For what purpose let me pause and think-
I answer, to warn the people not to taste strong drink.
And, I’m sure, if they take his advice, they never will rue
The day they joined the Blue Ribbon Army in the year 1882;
And I hope to their colours they will always prove true,
And shout, Hurrah ! for Mr Murphy and the Ribbon of Blue.
What is strong drink? Let me think– I answer ’tis a thing
From whence the majority of evils spring,
And causes many a fireside with boisterous talk to ring,
And leaves behind it a deadly sting.
Some people do say it is good when taken in moderation,
But, when taken to excess, it leads to tribulation,
Also to starvation and loss of reputation,
Likewise your eternal soul’s damnation.
The drunkard, he says he can’t give it up,
For I must confess temptation’s in the cup;
But he wishes to God it was banished from the land,
While he holds the cup in his trembling hand.
And he exclaims in the agony of his soul —
Oh, God, I cannot myself control
From this most accurs’d cup!
Oh, help me, God, to give it up!
Strong drink to the body can do no good;
It defiles the blood, likewise the food,
And causes the drunkard with pain to groan,
Because it extracts the marrow from the bone:
And hastens him on to a premature grave,
Because to the cup he is bound a slave;
For the temptation is hard to thole,
And by it he will lose his immortal soul.
The more’s the pity, I must say,
That so many men and women are by it led astray,
And decoyed from the paths of virtue and led on to vice
By drinking too much alcohol and acting unwise.
Good people all, of every degree,
I pray, ye all be warned by me:
I advise ye all to pause and think,
And never more to taste strong drink.
Because the drunkard shall never inherit the kingdom of God
And whosoever God loves he chastens with his rod:
Therefore, be warned, and think in time,
And don’t drink any more whisky, rum, or wine.
But go at once– make no delay,
And join the Blue Ribbon Army without dismay,
And rally round Mr Murphy, and make a bold stand,
And help to drive the Bane of Society from our land.
I wish Mr Murphy every success,
Hoping he will make rapid progress;
And to the Blue Ribbon Army may he always prove true,
And adhere to his colours– the beautiful blue.
presumably poorer because whatever the state delivers it does so at a cost that is more than the equivalent private sector delivery. But also poorer because the state does not in any sense maximise individual utility. If individuals made their own choices for say healthcare then whatever else is true demand would not match public sector supply.
I am sure this is not an exhaustive analysis. But making sense of Murphy, if that is possible, is certainly exhausting!
The left is quite intent on bringing living standards down. Effectively, their efforts often mean thwarting the ambitions of those who don’t have much at present but who strive to get ahead. They do have the conceit of believing that they are capable of managing living standards down to some point of tolerable upper lower class living and then keeping us there. I rather appreciate it that they admit this now and then, though I don’t really understand why conservatives and libertarians don’t point this out more often.
Cadet – he’s not an accountant, he’s a very naughty potato. V-P has said before that his twin brother took Spud’s exams for him. If true, it explains a great deal about his pointless and deluded witterings.
I though his twin was a radio DJ or similar. Seems unlikely that he would have sat accountancy exams, although Murphy’s lack of basic accountancy knowledge indicates he has forgotten anything he ever learnt.
Ugh, Bravefart… I thought deploying Vogon poetry was an intergalactic offense?
Excuse me while I try to stop my ears from bleeding.
Once spent over 8 hours in Emergency waiting to see a doctor with a trivial case of 4 broken fingers and 3 dislocated knuckles, and you don’t get any treatment/pain relief beyond an aspirin until doctor has seen you. The junior that eventually saw me tried to send me home with some strapping and painkillers before the nurse (and my wife also a nurse) took him aside and told him point blank to get someone who knew what they were doing to review his decision. End result was that as a result of so long without any treatment and the by then advanced swelling restricting blood flow I had to be admitted for surgery, wonder of the world indeed.