The British seem to never learn, as the declining country could get far worse as one of its key industries – banking – is under attack from the socialists rampant in the country.
When taking into consideration the extraordinary weakening of the shipbuilding, engineering and steel industries in Britain, you have to ask the question if the British are ever going to learn.
Even ignorant socialists should understand you can’t tax and extort what isn’t there any longer. If foreign banks pull out or cut back on their presence in Britain, they won’t be able to get capital for their redistribution fantasies from those that leave the country.
So to add fuel to the fire in an economic environment like that is plain economically crazy, to say the least. Yet the British leaders are doing just that, and arrogantly thumbing their nose at the markets as the last vestiges of a free market siphons away from the formally great Britain. Where will they get the money to prop up their socialist programs then? How much more can they go into national debt? And how much more money can their central bank print without extraordinary inflationary pressures bearing down on them?
In a blog entry, British Bankers’ Association Chief Executive Angela Knight said this: “The UK has a record of building up great industries such as in steel, shipbuilding, engineering. It also has a history of losing them.
“Be angry at the banks by all means, but it would be the height of irresponsibility to lose this industry as we have done with others so many times before.”
Knight is correct concerning all of what she said. Concerning the anger aspect of it, she was actually nice about it, as in reality taking action based on emotions and anger will inevitably lead to disaster in all areas of life, including banking. To assuage the perceived public anger to the point of destroying one of the more profitable business sectors in Britain is reckless and irresponsible.
Like in many countries, a lot of this is about politics, and thinking this will bring political capital to the existing party in power in Britain is misreading the way the public is angry, along to the extent they’re angry. Politicians in democracies will find that out soon enough.
Now as to why I brought up the enemies of capitalism not prevailing, and using the example of the response of the British government as an example, look at how this is playing out.
Most if not all of the foreign competition of the British aren’t adapting anything like they are, and so the British banks will be at complete disadvantage from a competitive standpoint of not only drawing quality employees, but being able to retain them. Add to that the very real possibility of large companies pulling out of the British market entirely, or a minimum significantly reducing staff or eliminating expansion programs, and you see the fragility of the situation at hand.
Think of this in terms of OPEC when they always announce they’re working together to cap oil production. It’s one of the biggest jokes in the world, as there is rarely, if ever, compliance on the part of any of the countries, let alone the entire group of OPEC countries.
So when Alistair Darling invoked the 50 percent tax on those working in the banking industry of Britain, I think behind the scenes a number of countries had implied they would follow him in doing the same thing. Either that, or he thought if he did it it would pressure other countries to follow. Even France, which participated in generating the original idea, didn’t comply in this way and changed things so they’re more competitive with Britain once Darling committed to the tax by announcing it. He made a strategic blunder, and he knows it. He’s also stuck with it, unless he were to change it, which would effectively end his career in Britain, as he would become a laughing stock.
In other words, Darling is experiencing something similar to OPEC countries, with the exception that all the OPEC countries quietly understand that production levels aren’t going to drop or go up to anywhere near the publicly agreed upon levels. Evidently Darling was the only representative of a banking industry that didn’t know that in this particular area, or simply didn’t care. I think it was the former, and now he’s fighting for his political life because of it.
This is why I say capitalism will eventually prevail, no matter how long it takes. It doesn’t matter what types of agreements are publicly put in place, other countries will renege or find ways to get around the agreements in ways that will benefit their people the best. It’s how it always goes, and that will continue on.
To be able to attain global governance, which is what the socialist/progressives froth over, there would have to be complete agreement and compliance from every country in the world. Good luck getting that, when it’s rare that two countries will completely comply, let alone hundreds.
For those of you who believe in capitalism, we aren’t at the end of capitalism as many of its enemies are trying to tell you and use mental and marketing gimmicks like ‘social proof’ to convince you of it. Rather, I believe we’re actually still at the infant stage of capitalism, and as socialist policies continue to fail around the world, and the nonsense of redistribution of capital is seen for the outrage that it is, we’ll see not only a resurgence in capitalism, but an explosion of capitalism which will start to reveal its inherent strengths and genius as to the best way to generate wealth and the well-being of society.
The relatively short history of capitalism has already proven this, along with the fantastic story of China, which publicly pretends to be socialist, but has already abandoned that stance in favor of operational free market capitalism.
In a few decades we’ll see the enormous strength and value of capitalism from the emerging Asian markets, and if the West doesn’t refute and abandon its socialist leanings, they’ll be the new third-world countries, while the former third world emerges as giants of industry and economic leaders of the world.
