Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

Post by happymellon » Tue, Sep 24, 2024, 1:48 PM UTC

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.

Post by schmidtleonard » Wed, Sep 25, 2024, 9:01 PM UTC

ninalanyon wrote: post #329

cherrycherry98 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Adam Smith is probably spinning in his grave. > His whole invisible hand metaphor is about society advancing as a whole from agents acting in their self interest. That theory is predicated on the market being composed of buyers and sellers of broadly similar financial power. This is no longer the case in most markets, certainly not in the UK as far as ordinary people or most small companies are concerned.