The problem, to me, isn't Labour, Tories or LibDems per se.
Rather, it's the Randian neo-liberalism - itself a worm from the Free
Trade nonsense of the 19th Century - that's the cause of our problems.
The idea that we would be better off if business had completely
free-hand.
I'm not anti-business - I'd like to rent a studio for my music but it's usually too expensive - however I can see a level of enforcement is necessary. Bacteria like a really open free-market; people cut corners, and I can see no recourse but to apply the law. If as a consumer I'm faced with a wife or a daughter or son who's been poisoned by a negligently made product, my only recourse is to stop buying from that source? What a great punishment for someone who's defrauded me, and killed my kith and kin. As in everyday life, people who defraud others should be punished.
As it stands, we still have plenty of regulations - stack-loads - but our over-lords, in an attempt to be business-friendly, and to make it appear as if they have an economic policy that works, refuse to enforce most of them until a crisis like this arises.
The same thing happened with the 2008 crash. Mervyn King falling asleep in the Financial Stability Committee meetings is emblematic of a heap load of farragoes past and present. Until the virulent strain of neo-liberalism that infects all parties has worked itself out, we'll be continuously faced with such situations as the horse-meat problem.
I'm not anti-business - I'd like to rent a studio for my music but it's usually too expensive - however I can see a level of enforcement is necessary. Bacteria like a really open free-market; people cut corners, and I can see no recourse but to apply the law. If as a consumer I'm faced with a wife or a daughter or son who's been poisoned by a negligently made product, my only recourse is to stop buying from that source? What a great punishment for someone who's defrauded me, and killed my kith and kin. As in everyday life, people who defraud others should be punished.
As it stands, we still have plenty of regulations - stack-loads - but our over-lords, in an attempt to be business-friendly, and to make it appear as if they have an economic policy that works, refuse to enforce most of them until a crisis like this arises.
The same thing happened with the 2008 crash. Mervyn King falling asleep in the Financial Stability Committee meetings is emblematic of a heap load of farragoes past and present. Until the virulent strain of neo-liberalism that infects all parties has worked itself out, we'll be continuously faced with such situations as the horse-meat problem.
Well said
ReplyDeleteThankyou.
ReplyDelete