As the Guardian reports this morning:
The government has said it will underwrite a £1.5bn loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) as the carmaker battles the consequences of a recent cyber-attack.
JLR had to suspend production at its UK factories for several weeks after being targeted by hackers with the shutdown expected to last until at least 1 October.
The loan, from a commercial bank, is expected to give the company's suppliers some certainty.
So, if you're a recklessly irresponsible corporate entity that decided not to insure against this risk, you're underwritten by the state.
But if you're a migrant with indefinite leave to stay in the UK and economic misfortune hits you through unemployment over which you have no control - maybe because your employer failed to take out insurance against cyber attacks - you might now be deported from the UK under Labour's new plans.
The hypocrisy is all too obvious.
And to describe the treatment of Jaguar as anything but socialism for the capitalist classes would be impossible.
Capitalism, my arse, was the phrase that came to my mind. There is one rule for the rich, for whom the state can never do enough, and another for those it should be protecting, who it will, instead, likely dispense with as soon as it can. This is not capitalism. This is state abuse, neoliberal style
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Yes, the state — government — can always find money to prop up and rescue big business or big private finance.
Even when business has been irresponsible, or broken laws — which they get away with — or just behaved with irrational exuberance, because they know the state will bail them out. The too big to fail pay off.
The so-called fiscal rules, and “balancing the books” don’t apply to them.
The money is always there for them.
Privatise the profits, socialize the losses.
Or — Socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else.
The playing field of capitalism/neoliberalism has never been a level one.
It’s socialism for the wealthy and for corporations, and fiscal Darwinism for everyone else.
You would think an international company with the clout of TATA would have the resources to deal with this.
I live near one of their biggest factories and many people in the area rely on them for work.
It’s bailing out the banks all over again.
I hope they have been told to take out insurance against cyber attacks as a condition of the loan.
Reminds me of 1971. All together to the tune of the Red Flag.
The people’s flag is deepest blue
We’re buying up Rolls Royce for you
When it makes a profit – then
We’ll sell it back to them again
Meanwhile the workers have been sent home on lay off terms –
Rate and length of statutory lay-off pay
You’re entitled to guarantee pay during layoff or short-time working. The maximum you can get is £39 a day for 5 days in any 3-month period – so a maximum of £195.
Where’s the support for them?
Effectivey, there is none.
Thanks Richard; you articulate my thoughts so well. Whenever I hear a BBC ‘economics’ broadcast, I haven’t the intellectual capacity to get beyond screaming “Capitalism… my arse!”.
And my answer to your poll in a previous posting today is an emphatic “YES” to AI summaries of your thinking on various subjects.
That endorsement comes from one who HAS read the majority of your 24,060 blog posts AND bought all your books.
Can’t say I’ve read them all because my attention span is as limited as my intellectual capacity.
Also, I’m glad that you have curtailed Comments to a sensible length. They’re now much easier to digest as I’m on a character-controlled diet.
Thanks, and 🙂