One of my recurring fantasies is to reanimate Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan on UK and Dutch trains, to tell them the year, and then ask them where they think they are—with only the ownership information and the performance and quality of the carriages to go on. The UK has privatised its rail system, the Netherlands' system is still in public ownership; one has high quality modern fast trains, while the other is still operating museum pieces.
Thanks for this Steve. It arrived on the day that I read reviews of Gelles’ book The Man Who Killed Capitalism about Jack Welch and I watched a Sam Seder discussion with the author, Gelles, who cites Friedman’s 1971 social responsibility article as part of the narrative.
Thinking systemically (at least I think I am!) it seems there were many positive and negative feedback loops through the 19th and 20th century of forces and ideas shaping what we see in the 21st century.
It seems part of human nature is to reify theories, install them as beliefs/positions in the subconscious where they become archetypes or frames creating a lens through which people view reality. As Gregory W. Lester pointed out in his 2000 article Why bad beliefs Don’t Die, (or I would say any belief), the lenses are hard to change. At least for about 80% of the people.
As an aside, when I was reading Blatt yesterday, I noticed a reference to my late friend John Hotson, professor emeritus of Economics at the University of Waterloo. Later that day I heard from someone who found a collection of John’s articles in some Banker Boxes. I plan to pick them up later this week. There is an irony!
I always thought John was ahead of his time especially when he wrote in 1993, “Wouldn’t it be a shame for the human race to perish because [it believed] it couldn’t afford to save itself.”
Of course wrapped into that is the Jack Welch, Maggie Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, James McGill Buchanan (see Democracy in Chains), Larry Summers, William Nordhaus and many other figures of influence swirling around over time like the elements of a hurricane.
Avner's insight is a good one because it helps break up the delusionary belief that government creation of money is always wasteful etc. Its time and cost insights also are valid.
What if we analyzed those relevant factors of time and cost from the opposite perspective of immediacy and cost reduction with a 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale? Everyone participates in retail sale thus such a policy mathematically and aggregatively/macro-economically benefits everyone by cutting the cost to the consumer by half while still enabling the commercial agent to get their full price?
I'm considering a class action suit (the class of all human beings and all economic agents) against Finance's monopoly paradigm of Debt Only for the creation and distribution of new money. Monopolies are problematic because they are anti-competitive market situations. Private Finance dominates virtually every market in the economy thus dominating the entire pattern/body of knowledge of economics with that monopoly paradigm. The last monopoly paradigm broken up was the Roman Catholic Church's monopoly paradigm for salvation (Catholic Sacraments Only) by The Reformation. Are we ready for/smart enough to start a monetary/economic Reformation?
Steve, I have fought privatisation, esp. rail, for over twenty years. I was adviser to the MD of InterCity in the 1980's and we fought the Department of Transport and the Tories for two years until finally the new BR Chair (Bob Reid, ex-Shell) took over and fired the MD, John Prideaux. It was an act of spite as the InterCity Board out-thought and out-maneuvered him on every issue. The best senior team I have ever had the privilege to consult with, including the blue chips.
You are right, Maggie would have never privatised BR or Royal Mail. That was John Major, and Vince Cable, and I despise them for it.
I write articles on the public services debacle and would like to use your charts on fares. Could I have your permission please?
Best wishes
John
PS It is sewage, not sewerage, that flows in the rivers. Sewerage is the infrastructure. (My company consulted to Welsh Water on its (very successful) contractor partnership strategy, long, long ago.
Whoops! I pride myself on getting my language right, so thanks for that, I will amend. And definitely--they're not my charts but are taken from an EU publication: Steer-Davies-Gleave. 2016. "Study on the prices and quality of rail passenger services.", edited by The European Commission Directorate General for Mobility and Transport. European Commission Directorate General for Mobility and Transport: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2016-09/2016-04-price-quality-rail-pax-services-final-report.pdf
Thanks for this Steve. It arrived on the day that I read reviews of Gelles’ book The Man Who Killed Capitalism about Jack Welch and I watched a Sam Seder discussion with the author, Gelles, who cites Friedman’s 1971 social responsibility article as part of the narrative.
Thinking systemically (at least I think I am!) it seems there were many positive and negative feedback loops through the 19th and 20th century of forces and ideas shaping what we see in the 21st century.
It seems part of human nature is to reify theories, install them as beliefs/positions in the subconscious where they become archetypes or frames creating a lens through which people view reality. As Gregory W. Lester pointed out in his 2000 article Why bad beliefs Don’t Die, (or I would say any belief), the lenses are hard to change. At least for about 80% of the people.
As an aside, when I was reading Blatt yesterday, I noticed a reference to my late friend John Hotson, professor emeritus of Economics at the University of Waterloo. Later that day I heard from someone who found a collection of John’s articles in some Banker Boxes. I plan to pick them up later this week. There is an irony!
I always thought John was ahead of his time especially when he wrote in 1993, “Wouldn’t it be a shame for the human race to perish because [it believed] it couldn’t afford to save itself.”
Of course wrapped into that is the Jack Welch, Maggie Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, James McGill Buchanan (see Democracy in Chains), Larry Summers, William Nordhaus and many other figures of influence swirling around over time like the elements of a hurricane.
Please let me know what you find Herb! I am aware of Hotson's work, so I'd love to know what you uncover.
Avner's insight is a good one because it helps break up the delusionary belief that government creation of money is always wasteful etc. Its time and cost insights also are valid.
What if we analyzed those relevant factors of time and cost from the opposite perspective of immediacy and cost reduction with a 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale? Everyone participates in retail sale thus such a policy mathematically and aggregatively/macro-economically benefits everyone by cutting the cost to the consumer by half while still enabling the commercial agent to get their full price?
I'm considering a class action suit (the class of all human beings and all economic agents) against Finance's monopoly paradigm of Debt Only for the creation and distribution of new money. Monopolies are problematic because they are anti-competitive market situations. Private Finance dominates virtually every market in the economy thus dominating the entire pattern/body of knowledge of economics with that monopoly paradigm. The last monopoly paradigm broken up was the Roman Catholic Church's monopoly paradigm for salvation (Catholic Sacraments Only) by The Reformation. Are we ready for/smart enough to start a monetary/economic Reformation?
Steve, I have fought privatisation, esp. rail, for over twenty years. I was adviser to the MD of InterCity in the 1980's and we fought the Department of Transport and the Tories for two years until finally the new BR Chair (Bob Reid, ex-Shell) took over and fired the MD, John Prideaux. It was an act of spite as the InterCity Board out-thought and out-maneuvered him on every issue. The best senior team I have ever had the privilege to consult with, including the blue chips.
You are right, Maggie would have never privatised BR or Royal Mail. That was John Major, and Vince Cable, and I despise them for it.
I write articles on the public services debacle and would like to use your charts on fares. Could I have your permission please?
Best wishes
John
PS It is sewage, not sewerage, that flows in the rivers. Sewerage is the infrastructure. (My company consulted to Welsh Water on its (very successful) contractor partnership strategy, long, long ago.
Whoops! I pride myself on getting my language right, so thanks for that, I will amend. And definitely--they're not my charts but are taken from an EU publication: Steer-Davies-Gleave. 2016. "Study on the prices and quality of rail passenger services.", edited by The European Commission Directorate General for Mobility and Transport. European Commission Directorate General for Mobility and Transport: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2016-09/2016-04-price-quality-rail-pax-services-final-report.pdf
The public operated EU trains own the privatized UK trains! So much for BREXIT!