If I ruled the World ( I mean GB)

Dec 16, 2008 12:11

Mr Darling's strategy to pull UK PLC out of the current nose dive looks more than a little doomed to me ( Read more... )

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bateleur December 16 2008, 14:55:32 UTC
Mostly looks good - I vote for you! Except...

Free cooked lunch for all schoolchildren

Isn't such a good idea. School lunches are already cheap and are given free to kids of low income families. As such, switching to an "always free" system would be putting money in the pockets of those who don't need it.

Wouldn't be good for obesity stats either, since cooked school meals are on average higher calorie than packed lunches. (And it's a fair bet few parents who switch will adapt evening meal plans.)

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onebyone December 21 2008, 22:07:56 UTC
I think the situation is summed up by the Tory claim that "viable businesses" can't get the credit they need to continue in the short term. Part of the problem, is that the economy has been run based on implausible expectations of future growth, in place of capital. Being able to get credit in the short term has become the *definition* of viable, because business models relying on old-fashioned stuff like assets and income were less profitable in a booming market than pure speculation, and were ditched.

Darling is trying to make those implausible expectations come true. In theory, this might provide the relief that companies need to restructure on sounder, more conservative assumptions. But it won't, because companies are obliged by institutional shareholders to be hysterically optimistic, and everyone else is therefore forced to do the same to compete.

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