Comments on: Proposals – a preamble.

By: Tam

Tam — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:15:52 +0000

I don't know if I'm reading too much into it or if it's going to go anywhere, but Ken Clarke's suggestions for penal reform sound like like an excellent idea.

The breathtaking amounts of money we've been wasting locking people away and building more prisons instead of having them do useful things for society have been a national disgrace and one of the dumber ideas we've imported from the US. It's a shame that it's taken a Tory to realise this, but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea anyway...

By: RichGB

RichGB — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:01:26 +0000

I agree with everything you've written Rob.
As a small business owner, I despair at the cost of employing people, most of whom require up to 6 months to become fully productive.
The Government could offer short-term tax incentives to encourage small businesses to employ more people. A reduction in red tape, as always, is welcome.

I would also like to see a clear division between investment banks and high-street banks. Let the investment banks carry on with their risky trading, but don't do it with the working man's money. High-street banks' main activity should be management (not creation) of money. Their primary income should come from interest on loans and service charges.

Lastly, I would like to ban all supermarket chains from selling anything but food and non-alcoholic drinks. Give business back to the local grocers, butchers, hardware merchants, pharmacists, dry cleaners, etc.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:30:40 +0000

Before we work out some credible plan to change the current system we should agree on what we would like the future to look like. I'm an engineer involved creating and maintaining in complex systems. When we want to change the system, we never have the time and budget to change the complete system at once, but we can nearly always get agreement on what features need to be changed and what can be left for later.

As you have said in previous posts, we need to tackle the size of the financial system. It's getting to be like Skynet in the terminator movies. We all need a healthy financial system that supports industry and provides capital. What we do not need is an extractive financial system that acts as a parasite to the rest of the economy.

We need to reduce the tax on productive labour in order to create jobs. People don't just need work to survive and pay the banks back, but also to feel like a valued member of society.

Perhaps the readers of this blog can come up with some other ideas. I have to get back to some productive labour ;-)

Rob