Question of the day: Now the whole economy is controlled by the governments of the world, are we now in a socialist utopia?

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This comes from Peter Dawe, a fairly regular commentator on the blog from what I do not think he will mind me saying is a contrarian perspective:

Now the whole economy is controlled by the governments of the world, are we now in a socialist utopia?

I am not going to offer much comment. I am going to leave that for others.

Suffice to say that I think the argument is flawed at many levels.

First, I am not in the slightest bit convinced the whole economy is controlled by governments: I think the power of finance remains absolutely paramount and is simply being reinforced by government at present.

Second, socialism is about motivation. I am not seeing a socialist motivation by the governments now seeking to control economic activity.

Third, at present the likely outcomes of interventions look to be horribly like those that arose in 2008, where wealth was supported, inequality was increased and the status quo was maintained.

We might be heading for a populist or fascist paradigm then. But in that case getting a social democratic solution out of this is going to be very hard. And a socialist one would, in any case, be far too focused on material issues for it to be remotely green enough to be sustainable.

So a green / red solution is required - which is brown. And we're not heading there as yet. But socialism is even more remote. A hard right solution is the direction of travel - and remember, they love nothing more than the control of the state to benefit corporate interests.


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