Now we get the bollocks about the Olympics being a blueprint for the economy
NOW that the actual Olympics Games themselves are over all we’ve got left are the vacuous claiming them as support for their fat headed plans. Will Hutton, of course, did this in yesterday’s Observer. But a much more interesting example was in the Telegraph, from the head of the CBI.
We all revelled in outstanding performances where selection and nurturing of identified talent in specific sectors ensured a small country could more than punch its weight when pitted against competition that measures population in billions of people and growing wealth in trillions of dollars.
Well, you might have revelled. Myself I pondered whether £12 billion might have been better spent than on a two week party for drug addicts in lycra.
But you can tell what’s coming next, can’t you? If we can plan an Olympics then we should also be able to plan our economy:
We need to see politicians and business leaders combining with the same resolve that brought us Olympic success in rebuilding our economic future. A five-point plan is required. We must identify and invest in those areas of the economy where our competitive edge can be boosted to world-beating leadership.
Sigh.
Planning to win Olympic medals just ain’t that hard. Find the few hundred people who can run and jump, give them some money and sit back.
Now try that again, that planning and subsidy bit, with the 65 million people who make up the UK economy. Bit harder isn’t it? In fact, we don’t have any method at all of working out who to subsidise or why. Sorry, we don’t have any sensible system: we can always use the method popular in many countries of just giving the cash to friends of politicians. Other than that, the only method we have of calculating who is worthy of the subsidy is the market. And that operates by selecting the successes. But by the time they’ve been selected they are successes and therefore don’t need subsidy.
Yes, of course, we expect the man who represents big business to say that we should all give more money to big business. As he should also expect the rest of us telling him to fuck off.
Posted: 13th, August 2012 | In: Money Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
