And it's Shameless Milne !
Actually it's a bit of a disappointment - even the Mad Dog isn't that mad.
Key sentence is "What is certain is that the dominance of the free-market model of capitalism, which has held sway across the world for more than two decades, is rapidly coming to an end."
If by 'free market' he means 'liberalised credit' I can't find much to argue with. If he means 'free market in goods and services' he's talking through his nether regions.
The other key point is that no-one on the Left seems to have much in the way of answers. The Graun trawled assorted lefties asking if they thought capitalism was on the skids. No one thought the revolution was just around the corner.
Laban's naive solution is that we try living within our means - as a nation and as individuals. It'll never catch on.
Trimmed
12 hours ago
8 comments:
Re the death of capitalism, yeah right, that's really going to happen.
I agree with you, Laban, that credit should be more tightly controlled - I've been shouting this at the radio for years - but there's not all that much talk around on the BBC about the idiots who thought it was a good idea to buy crap houses in dodgy areas for huge amounts of money.
I don't have a 50inch widescreen plasma TV, and I could afford one. So is it my fault that on the estates of Britain there are thousands of the bloody things, all paid for on the never never?
What happened is people at both ends of the scale lost sight of the difference between 'want' and 'need', and 'need' became so elastic as to be almost meaningless.
Unfortunately, those of us who managed to restrain our desire for shiny plastic Chinese tat are probably going to have to bail out those who couldn't.
Er, did I say 'couldn't'? I meant wouldn't.
Laban,
COMPLETELY off-topic but you REALLY should have a look at this guy. Excellent stuff.
http://heritageamerican.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/what-happened-to-britain/
Sure the far left precursors of Milne predicted the end of capitalism after the:
- Asian financial crisis.
- Savings & Loan Crisis
- ERM Fiasco
- Black Monday
- The Secondary Banking Crisis
- The First Oil Shock
- The Second Oil Shock.
- The Devaluation of Sterling
But this time it's different!!
living within our means...a daring and brave solution...you could be on to something.
Laban,
Sorry, but I can't find much to disagree with in Milne's piece, even if he is an hereditary mediocrat.
I am garevely concerned that the recession which is on the cards will herald a new Dark Age.
"The Graun trawled assorted lefties asking if they thought capitalism was on the skids. No one thought the revolution was just around the corner."
That's because they have finally realised they can make an easy living from capitalism AND make a living from criticising it.
"...the recession which is on the cards will herald a new Dark Age."
How so?
JuliaM,
This crisis has the potential to cause the catastrophic breakdown of our way of life, a shock from which it will take years to recover.
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