The UK can go back to being the richest country in the world

The Watt Steam Engine is from 1765.

Yes, because they had the world's biggest navy and effectively controlled the sea route to the East. That would make anyone rich.

> And unlike in Germany where these transfers have been shrinking for decades as the East of the country grows its economy, in Britain we become ever more reliant on the Greater South East and London in particular every year.

Uhh... Outside of Leipzig (and obviously Berlin), things aren't going very well in the East of Germany. And even in Leipzig things were super shitty until property fever hit in 2017. Everybody with prospects still moves West in Germany, and the East remains relatively poor as a result (and unheard, which is why the AFD has gained a foothold here).

Know what makes countries rich (besides conquest)? Long rivers big enough to pass container ships through without locks - connecting your resources and industrial bases to your markets with super cheap transport costs. The Mississippi. The Yangtze. The Rhine.

The point in having money is indeed NOT to spend it. It is to build a hoard so large you can live comfortably off the dividends and investment returns, or even to save most of that again and grow your hoard even faster, creating "fuck you" levels of money and intergenerational wealth.

When people say "tax the rich" they don't mean "deprive the neurosurgeon or City banker off his biannual new Mercedes". (These people DO indeed spend a smaller share of their income than poorer folks but that's not the point) When people say "tax the rich" they mean "tax capital returns" so that the country can benefit from the wealth currently amassed and extracted by the hyper wealthy that couldn't spend all their annual portfolio gains if they bought ought all of Paris Fashion Week every year.

What’s missing is the social analysis here - ambitious people in the UK go to London where they can make more money, and ambitious companies that want ambitious people go to London because that’s where the staff are. London and the SE don’t just fund the rest of the country, they also drain the talent and workers from those areas.

London does not have that great economy in isolation from its regions, it has it at least in part by feeding on them.

Growing the northern economy (and really anywhere outside the London dormitory belt) is also going to require finding a way to break the low-pay, low-productivity, low-expectations trap that exists across most of the British economy. And doing that will to some extent limit London’s talent pool.

It’s not a zero sum game, but also - TAANSTAFL.