I actually think we are just a bit thick, or at least uneducated, so much so that we’ll( enough of us to matter) believe any old bollox that gets printed in the Sun.
I’m fairly certain running a country is pretty simple, as a last resort you could just copy Germany/Scando countries and bingo youre doing ok.
The result of our own stupidity is a choice of Eaton fags and angry Comp six formers as politicians pursuing their own ideology rather than the logical solutions.
Tax havens for example, why do they exist, what is the point in the Isle of Man allowing holding companies to set up and pay no tax?
A further consequence of the post-war baby boomers is a huge demographic approaching retirement in the next 5-15 years - as much as 40% of the UK population will reach retirement, become economically inactive and put huge strain or health and social care. The current generation of retirees benefitted from gold-plated pensions, index-linked and protected - however the taxes they contributed were spent a long time ago - but the costs of their pensions and healthcare are being paid by today's taxpayer, particularly where successive Governments and employers were permitted to go 'on holiday' from making contributions - the costs of those liabilities will be met in many cases by the State from the exchequer.
High employment levels for a significant are in minimum-wage jobs like retail and hospitality, which can only exist because they're funded by tax credits and allow their employers to trouser billions and offshore their profits.
We still suffer a productivity problem compared to our peers - working low-wage workers harders isn't going to address a structural problem in under-investment whilst corporations run public services and put dividends ahead of investment
Add Brexit into the mix and we're screwed.....
I’m neither a socialist, or capitalist. I really do despair with our current situation. The last election showed the immaturity of the electorate. May decided it was a good time to try a few Home truths, we can’t afford the triple lock etc, whereas Jeremy promised students a load of imaginary money. Guess who we went for?
our national debt is huge & growing
public services are crippled by PFI debt
Brexit is going to hammer the economy even more
Nobody wants to pay for anything. We all want “cheap”
Ageing population, medical advances and disgraceful practices wrt drug charges swallowing the NHS budget.
The reality is we probably all need to pay 10% higher tax, and wages need to rise by 10%. Chances if either? Nil. We will kick the can down the road in the name of re-election.