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Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

ukfoundations.co

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Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#331

Post by ninalanyon »

feedforward wrote: post #209
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water quality by country. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/water-qua... US is good while countries with more left leaning setups do bad. It is not as black and white as you imply.

> US is good while countries with more left leaning setups do bad. Huh? This is a map of the industrialized countries - western Europe, the US and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. Not sure how "left leaning setups do bad", the Scandinavian countries seem to have good water.

> the Scandinavian countries seem to have good water.

We certainly do here in Norway. And it's provided by the kommune (the local authority) not a private company. Where I live it is what I dilute my Scotch with. It's easily as good as or better than any bottled water.

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#332

Post by gadders »

bloak wrote: post #202
gadders wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Norman times: People with Norman names wealthier than other Britons People with "Norman" surnames like Darcy and Mandeville are still wealthier than the general population 1,000 years after their descendants conquered Britain, according to a study into social progress. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/842...

Also surnames like d'Urberville? (Alec d'Urberville in "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" is a nouveau riche person who adopted the name rather than a descendent of the original d'Urbervilles. Probably that happens in real life, too, though I expect the people who did the study have taken that into account and have done the best they can in the absence of reliable public ancestry data.)

Like Anton Du Beke? (Real name Tony Beke) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Du_Beke

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#333

Post by moomin »

kranke155 wrote: post #242
nmadden wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the authors is from the Centre for Policy Studies. Another is from the Adam Smith Institute. These are the gang of shady right-wing think tanks that brought us Truss and Kwarteng. That tells you everything you need to know about their economic competence.

Their solution is to allow private funds to fund essential infrastructure, it seems. Which to me just rings hollow, or at best, only a part of the answer. They're correct on some aspects of it, other parts they just gloss over. IE They say that there has been an "erosion" of the industrial base in the UK, while actually the blame could be laid at the feet of Thatcher's service-led policies.

Gotta love the fact they go “Hey, look how great France’s infrastructure is.” and then immediately advocate for yet more private infrastructure deals without mentioning that France’s infrastructure was largely government funded (using those taxes they seem to hate).

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#334

Post by moomin »

cherrycherry98 wrote: post #273
schmidtleonard wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their agenda is to frame the self-serving interests of a very narrow group as the economic interests of everyone. That's shady.

Depending on the specifics, that sounds congruent with some of Adam Smith's economic theories so it's not surprising to see such arguments used, especially if some of the authors are from the Adam Smith Institute. His whole invisible hand metaphor is about society advancing as a whole from agents acting in their self interest. It's more likely a sincerely held belief than an attempt at misdirection.

I doubt Adam Smith would agree with anything the Adam Smith Institute says.

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#335

Post by [deleted] »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #38

I’ll need to sit down and read this properly, but I would say there is a real stench of decline in England at the moment and pretty much everyone here would agree. It’s readily apparent the new government won’t save us already. Public services in particular: 2 weeks to see a Dr, a year for an operation, unlikely for the police to attend your call out, stagnant economy, high cost of living and low wages. And all whils…

[deleted]

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#336

Post by shiroiushi »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #204
glomph wrote: post #140

This website makes some claims about what has caused both growth and decline that are pretty contentious. I think that many would argue that the growth following the second world war was the result of massive state investment in public services like creating the NHS and the building of council housing. They baffelingly attribute yhat growth to the Conservative Govrernment of the 1930s rather than the post war labour…

Water quality by country. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/water-qua... US is good while countries with more left leaning setups do bad. It is not as black and white as you imply.

According to the graph on this site, ALL countries in the world have very bad water, at least after I move my mouse pointer around the map: all the countries turn orange.

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#338

Post by shiroiushi »

hnlmorg wrote: post #257
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many areas of the USA have population densities entirely comparable with large parts of Europe. The upper-central midwest (eastern MN, WI, IL, IA) is a good example - it compares favorably to most of France or Germany. This is another example of how it is almost always a mistake to use a unitary description of anything when it comes to the USA. Yes, certainly where I live (New Mexico), population density is extremely…

It’s common to travel between European counties by rail instead of plane. In fact I’ve done this myself.

It's fairly common, but even in Europe, it's frequently cheaper to fly than to take a train, unfortunately. I would not point to Europe as a place that does passenger rail extremely well; that honor goes to Japan. Europe might be better than the US at it, but that's not saying much.

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#339

Post by pch00 »

throwaway48540 wrote: post #177
nmadden wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the authors is from the Centre for Policy Studies. Another is from the Adam Smith Institute. These are the gang of shady right-wing think tanks that brought us Truss and Kwarteng. That tells you everything you need to know about their economic competence.

What is shady about them? Are they criminals?

Led By Donkeys' exposure of the Truss mini-budget and the Adam Smith Institute involvement is enlightening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRDLIOME47c

Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

#340

Post by wtfwhateven »

sph wrote: post #308
nmadden wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the authors is from the Centre for Policy Studies. Another is from the Adam Smith Institute. These are the gang of shady right-wing think tanks that brought us Truss and Kwarteng. That tells you everything you need to know about their economic competence.

Of course, the second most upvoted comment is an ad personam dismissal that doesn't even engage with its arguments. How's that for HN-level intelligent discourse?

the parent comment already explained how extremely deceptive and dishonest the article is so what else is there to add? this is like complaining about someone not wanting to bother refuting every individual thing a pathological liar has said when their lies are so obvious
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