Posted by Jake on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 with 4 comments | Labels: Article, Austerity, budget cuts, energy, Graphs, Manufacturing, transport
For years one of the favourite excuses for making all us Ripped-off Britons worse off by hiking prices and keeping down wages has been the need to pay for "investment". Energy , telecoms and transport companies warn of blackouts and overcrowding unless we swallow price hikes for "investment".
Employers and governments say wages and pensions can't go up because the money kept from us is needed for "investment".
A report by the National Audit Office, "Infrastructure Investment: the impact on consumer bills", reveals the extent of the rampant rises:
"Spending [by consumers paying their bills] on energy and water
bills rose by 44 per cent and 21 per cent respectively, in the period 2002 to
2011 while median incomes were still the same in 2011 as they were in 2002 (all
figures calculated in 2012 prices)"
Figures from a European Union report, "In Depth Review for the UK", suggest that the "investment" is actually woefully inadequate. The report shows that the UK has about the worst investment record of all 27 EU nations.
Makes you wonder where all the money actually does go:
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| Income data from http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ |
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According to my reading of the World Economic Forum Competitiveness report 2014-15 at http://www.weforum.org/reports , the UK is 10th for infrastructure , not 24th
ReplyDeleteSee Table 5: The Global Competitiveness Index 2014–2015: Basic requirements
But in any case I'm not sure how objective their assessment is.........
Yes you are right, that's what it says. Looking at the EU report it's not clear where their reference comes from, so I am removing it from the above post.
DeleteThis is a very old question for me as an immigrant. In Canada, for quick calculations, we rounded income tax to 25% and got a decent social safety net. In the UK, we round income tax to 35% and get much, much less. Granted, it's anecdotal and Canada is much more right wing now than it was - everywhere is more Neoliberal (right-wing fundamentalist) - but where does all our UK tax money go? I can only imagine it must trickle up to the plutocrats, and out to corporate welfare recipients. From each according to her need, to each according to his Oxbridge education.
ReplyDeleteThe whole UK political,system is and was set up for the ekites. The whole system needs to be moderinised. We dont live in 17th Century riuling elites socity anymore. We can start by dismantling the house of Lords..close loopholes, and make all politiciation accountable.. in the real meaning of the word..and the banks... nationalise services, this neo liberalism shit does work, well not for the majority.
ReplyDelete