I had this text exchange yesterday:
One day they will get the message that I will never appear on GB News.
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Some terms become fashionable for a while. A few years ago we used to hear of ‘structural deficits’ all the time.
‘Unfunded tax cuts’ is now being used as a synonym for ‘a bad thing”. The close relative is ‘unfunded government spending’. I can see it being deployed in battalions if we were ever to use MMT.
IMHO a govt. can’t be sure what any tax will raise or what ‘borrowing’ -sale of gov. bonds , will be in any one year. I groan when politicians say but not spending on A, they will be able to afford X. Or tax B can be used to pay for policy Y.
My least favourite was also in the news last night. Ministers have been asked to look for ‘efficiency savings’. Already underfunded public services to be cut yet again. Grr!
Well done, Richard.
Nothing important to add to Fred’s comment except that it is always important to remember that evil doesn’t always come walking down the road in a black hat, or in this case a black shirt.
You did right.
Fascism is alive and well in the UK.
The other day I was talking to a work colleague about the CoLC and he ended up telling me that I should be wearing a Jeremy Corbyn T-shirt.
Fascism is alive and well in this country because there is a group of people who have been hardened enough to accept it. A mixture of low wages and less, the requirement to consume at low cost thus help them to reinforce the very same low wages that under value their service and labour (turkeys voting for Christmas) and the view that everyone who is visible to them (their friends and neighbours) are doing better than them must be on the make on welfare.
Using a failed NHS, low pay and being herded onto flying cattle trucks by Ryan Air and the like for example is all they are used to now. They don’t expect much except to revel in the paucity of their lives – as Tim Snyder has pointed out.
I asked my accuser about the current Prime Minister and her Chancellor – Corbyn had promised better than that and would not have done anything as stupid. He didn’t have an answer. Why? Because he probably felt that he was sucker. I hope so anyway.
What is worse is that I see a lot of this in the public sector now because of low pay in the workforce (too high pay in senior management, copying the private sector).
As the ancient Chinese knew, the people are very sensitive to things like prices and income. Governing a country meant that those governing had to do something to keep the people happy and maintain the peace and that there was some sort ‘contract’ between the ruler and the ruled.
People are embarrassed and ashamed if they are seen to be not keeping up with the Jones’s whether in Peking or Derby. Fascism prowls here believe you me.
Such a contract has been broken in the West for far too long where we have set one set of the population against the other for far too long under the name of so-called ‘adversarial politics’ and set goals for society that as well as being unattainable (work hard and you all will be rich) or also unsustainable (those cheap flights are helping to kill the planet).
Hi PSR
I always enjoy reading your below the line comments, but (there’s a big BUT coming up) your third line (…about the CoLC …) would make a lot more sense if you’d actually specified what CoLC is: City of Liverpool College; Church of Lutheran Confession; Circle of Least Confusion… there are loads of meanings to the acronym CoLC (including Copyright of the Library of Congress.)
Check out this link if you don’t believe me:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=what+does+the+CoLC+mean
People using acronyms without first describing them in full English to the uninitiated is a bug bear of mine… it drives me nuts as the wrong interpretation of an acronym can completely change the meaning of a sentence.
So, would you mind TMWTHIM (telling me what the heck it means?) See, that’s all you have to do. Once you’ve described the acronym in full in brackets, you only have to do it the once in the same piece. More relevant I admit for articles, etc, rather than a one-off comment where an acronym is unlikely to be repeated. If the latter applies might I suggest not using an acronym at all and just typing it out in full to save poor souls like myself having to google it, ending up even more confused than before and none the wiser as to the context of the sentence the pesky acronym was in.
Cheers
Sandra
@IS: Yes indeed, anyone remember “Public Sector Borrowing Requirement” ?
Out of interest what is your thoughts one the outright racism within the Labour Party?
I condemn racism
Labour suspended the MP
I suggest you stop asking stupid questions
Having watched GB News a few times it’s fair to say that the programmes are dull. However I do not know why the accusation of fascist is used – if racial purity, hatred of Jewish people and extreme nationalism are being promoted it must be happening at other times.
What makes you think there is evidence of fascism on GB News?
It promotes a far right agenda
Your definition of fascism is very narrow
Hi Richard
I used to believe GB News was far right and never watched it. On giving it a go, I’ve found their news to be pretty impartial and not at all far right.
BBC TV seems only too happy to trot out the IEA for all things economic. I’m not sure whether you’ve been on the Beeb, but I’d welcome an MMT advocate to make a point and balance things against the IEA type narrative.
Much of the mainstream media seems to suffer with groupthink, I’ve not found that with GB News.
All the best
And I thinko you are a troll
Hi Richard
I’m disappointed to get that feedback, especially when I support you and the work of others in getting the message out there.
Shame, really.
It felt like trolling to me
Still does, to be honest
I wonder whether there is scope to give someone the benefit of any doubt?
You don’t know who I am or what I believe today about the money system, you don’t know about my time spent in the mortgage market, you don’t know what I learned about money and how I believe it works and yet, I still believe MMT is the best description.
Feelings about people are fine, of course, but that doesn’t mean those initial feelings are correct. The same is true of beliefs, beliefs are not truths and provided one is open, all beliefs may be challenged, and new beliefs are able to emerge.
Wishing you all the best
I write a blog and have done for 16 years now
As a result I have received rather more than my fair share of abuse and get an instinct for when it is coming
Your comment had classic troll characteristics in it
If I am wrong, I apologise