We're told the UK is living beyond its means. But who exactly is living beyond them? It's not schools, libraries, or the NHS. It's not people in poverty. It's the private monopolies and unchecked corporate profits. In this video, I explain why this narrative is not just wrong—it's dangerous.
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Is the UK living beyond its means?
I read an article in the Financial Times recently that boldly declared that we were living way beyond our means, and I profoundly disagree with it, because what it was saying was that the thing that we had to cut was the size of the UK government.
It's always schools, the NHS, support for the disabled, social care and those profligate librarians who are the cause of our national distress, according to those who claim that we are living beyond our means.
They always say it's the state that's inefficient and which must be cut, but when doing so, they ignore some absolutely fundamental truths.
The private sector is fundamentally unproductive in the UK, compared to the rest of the world; that's the truth that we have to face.
We face massive underemployment in this country as a consequence, and that's the truth that we have to face.
And there are whole communities starved of investment in the UK as a consequence of the private sector withdrawing from them, in effect, and that's the truth that we have to face.
But it isn't the state that is causing our problems.
Nor are states pushing people into situations where they can't afford to live. The private sector is doing that.
It's pushing up rents.
It's pushing up property costs.
It's pushing up interest charges on mortgages and car loans, and everything else.
It's pushing up the price on things like mobile phone contracts, electricity, gas prices, and water, too; all of those things are pushed up because they are supplied by private monopolies.
If we are living beyond our means, it's because we are fueling the excess profits of these businesses and not because we're over-consuming the NHS and schools.
What we are actually seeing is a world of unchecked excess, which those who argue that we must cut the state want to continue. You never see those who argue that we must cut the size of the NHS say that we must cut the number of weight loss drugs that are being prescribed to deal with the problems created by addictive food, sold by the private sector.
You never hear those who claim that we can't afford to support those with disabilities say we also can't afford SUVs and giant cars, which are bigger every year, because that's just not their own priority.
And you never hear those who say that we can't afford to tackle climate change, saying that we must cut the number of cheap flights we take for holidays in the sun, which are 92% of all the flights taken out of the UK each year, which are helping to burn our planet.
There is an excess in this country. We do consume too much for the planetary constraints that now exist.
We are getting excess heat as a result. We are getting droughts. And we're also getting more rain as a consequence. It's clear that something is wrong, but those who claim we are living beyond our means, say, and I've said it before, "It's those profligate librarians who are putting too many books on the shelves in Wolverhampton who are bringing the state down."
Not once do they say it is banks and big business that are contributing to this.
We must change the way we live, is the point.
We have to look at how we manage the climate crisis.
We have to look at how we change our food supply so that people are not made ill by it in the future, as they very clearly are now.
We have to change the way in which we manage our overseas relations and the way we support countries to also manage the climate crisis, or migration is going to get worse.
We have to manage our shortsightedness, which ignores these issues.
We have to manage the self-interest that says the state is too big, but private profits must always come first.
We must challenge the poor judgment that lets people get away with claiming we can't afford to support children with special needs, but we can afford private excess.
Let's just look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs for a moment.
We're under-consuming clean water, nutritious food, and decent housing; we are under-consuming education, social care, and secure communities, those are levels one and two on that hierarchy of need. That's why we are so stressed.
But we are over-consuming things that try to reinforce our status and tell the world that they must respect us. Those are levels three and four in that hierarchy.
We've got everything the wrong way round. We are consuming to excess where we don't have need, but only have want, and we're consuming too little where we have need and people are left in poverty.
We must now change our direction.
We do need investment in basic needs.
We need stronger public services, and we must regulate those industries that fuel over-consumption and climate harm.
The UK is living beyond its means, but the means it's living beyond are its environmental means, and you can put your head in the sand and you can say, I'm talking nonsense, and this doesn't matter, but it does if you're going to be alive after 2050, and most people who are watching this video will want to be in that situation because, by then, the reality of the climate crisis will become all too clear.
Our current excess will then become our current crisis.
We have to build a state that guarantees security, dignity, and sustainability for the long term.
And we're failing to do.. And the consequence is we are going to need to change our excess consumption. But it isn't the state that's going to have to give way. It's the excess consumption of the wealthy that is going to need to give.
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Kalecki proved that government spending in excess of tax or borrowing helps prevent the monetary system from collapsing into a private debt crisis, Steve Keen’s Macroeconomics book for Elon Musk explains this in detail on pages 42-50.
Link: https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/money-and-macroeconomics-from-first-56b
A useful summary from Hyman Minsky:
“Before World War II, serious depressions occurred regularly. The Great Depression of
the 1930s was just a ‘bigger and better’ example of the hard times that occurred so
frequently. This postwar success indicates that something is right about the
institutional structure and the policy interventions that were largely created by the
reforms of the 1930s.” (Minsky 1982, p. xi)
So big government and high taxes are necessary for economic stability under capitalism.
Oldest Son finished at Hogwarts (Christ Church) last year
We visited fairly regularly and amidst all this talk of ‘Austerity’ and ‘The Cost of Living Crisis’ what struck me was that as we drove over my ageing estate car was constantly being passed by new SUV’s significantly exceeding the speed limit.
Clearly there are plenty of people with money to spend on flash cars and who are not worried about the cost of the fuel they put in them either.
So there is clearly income to be taxed to help pay for public services its just that we are not doing it
Those SUV drivers are likely to be people who really are living beyond their means.
To Richard’s point, “But we are over-consuming things that try to reinforce our status and tell the world that they must respect us” – This statement is so true.
Correct
Might Michael Hudson’s analysis of the basic power groups within a society be relevant?
(In no particular order)
1) The government
2) The very wealthy/powerful
3) The rest
Might history indicate that when government has a proper/decent care for “The Rest/The Majority” and manages/restrains thé power of the Very Wealthy/Powerful then the society, as a whole, is reasonably coherent, stable and sustainable?
Might (apparent) collusion between power group 2, and its enabling group 1, be a foundation of the political and social-economic realities of recent and current times?
Might contributory factors include:
(in no particular order)
a) A compliant main stream media
b) A mass education set up which which results in the citizenry being (deliberately) mal-educated to be be gullible and subservient as a result of failings in the teaching the essentials of:
1) Critical thinking
2) Lateral thinking
3) Always questioning authority
4) The worth and need of always seeking equitable social cohesion combined with diversity, socially and informationally
5) Permanent active involvement in the realities of the control and management of society, and its subsets, which, currently, lacks effective democratic knowledge and systems
Thanks
That beeds more emphasis on the pwoer of media, I suggest
And also the ‘establishmnt’ power in the civil service as opposed to government
It’s the ‘Gishing Gallop’ again – get you refutations and accusations in early to discombobulate the truth that the problem lies elsewhere.
It is the rich and their rents that we cannot afford as you say. The state owns and backs the currency and make it at will.
The real issue is a lack of will because the people in charge of the ‘will’ bit have been captured and compromised.
A short while ago I watched again my DVD of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. It is now over 20 years old. What is truly frightening is that in it he makes some predictions about what will happen to the climate 20 years into the future (i.e. now) if nothing is done about climate change. If anything his predictions undershot what is actually happening now. No one listened then, and no one listens now. That is why many fall for the Net Zero denying bilge spouted by the likes of Farage – it’s a “Convenient Lie” i.e. there is no problem so there’s no need for a solution. It means that people will “trust” the climate deniers because it gives them an excuse to do sod all about changing their lifestyles. But when the world truly burns, they might not have a lifestyle at all. The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.
Our “means” constitute the total productive capacity of our economy. If some of our productive forces ( people , equipment) are underused , we are not living beyond them. Our “means” have nothing to do with the public utility we call money, which is not a scarce resource.
“Whatever we can do , we can afford” J.M.Keynes.
Correct
We don’t yet seem to comprehend that what we thought we might be able to do is moving out of reach. The limits to growth are becoming clearer and the financiers aren’t going to put the public interest first. Diesel isn’t keeping up with global demand – ‘ the world’s per capita affordable supply of diesel has been declining, especially since 2014’ – affecting just about everything. https://ourfiniteworld.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Excellent article Richard.
George Monbiot’s article in the Guardian today provides a very timely example of exactly what you point out in terms of a fundamentally unproductive private sector. It further raises the question of why doesn’t the UK government do what the vast majority of people think is the right thing to do and re-nationalise? Sadly, the article also provides the answer to the preceding question…the UK government is beholden to the private sector and is actively encouraging an example of massive wealth extraction (aka financial rip-off) by the financial vultures that Rachel Reeves is trying to help even more. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
“ High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England’s great artificial water crisis of 2025”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/17/water-bills-filthy-rivers-drought-water-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Thanks