Please, 'Dave', why not try doing nothing?

Because I couldn't find the do-flicker-thingie I spent a depressing number of nano-seconds this morning watching sundry 'il-Lib-non-Dems' waffling on and on about the economy in the vein of 'Something Must be Done' and, of course, they were just absolutely the very best people to actually do the 'Something' whatever it might be.  I groaned!  Turning to my trusty computer-thingie I happened to click on to Cafe Hayek, always a source of wisdom, to read this lesson from history written by Thomas Sowell: 

There was a stock market crash in October 1929 and unemployment shot up to 9 percent — for one month. Then unemployment started drifting back down until it was 6.3 percent in June 1930, when the first major federal intervention took place.

That was the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill, which more than a thousand economists across the country pleaded with Congress and President Hoover not to enact. But then, as now, politicians decided that they had to “do something.”

Within 6 months, unemployment hit double digits. Then, as now, when “doing something” made things worse, many felt that the answer was to do something more.

Both President Hoover and President Roosevelt did more — and more, and more. Unemployment remained in double digits for the entire remainder of the decade. Indeed, unemployment topped 20 percent and remained there for 35 months, stretching from the Hoover administration into the Roosevelt administration.

Don Boudreaux, the maître d ' of Cafe Hayek, agrees with the general thrust of Sowell's remarks but discounts the effects of Smoot-Hawley.  Whilst it was definitely unhelpful the fact is that in those far off days American foreign trade was minimal and the raising of tariffs had only a marginal effect on the overall economy.  According to Boudreaux it was all the other things that politicans did, under the misapprehension that 'Something Must Be Done' that put the 'Great' into the 'Great Depression'.

From a strictly political point of view, of course, today's politicans are correct in not 'trusting the people'!  We are, by and large, a pretty pathetic lot of dummies forever seeking reassurance and a nice warm government teat upon which to suck for comfort.  But sometimes, I do just wish that a politician would stand up and tell it the way it is.  Something like this, perhaps:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we're fucked!  Not completely fucked but as near as makes no difference.  The last Labour government spent like drunken sailors and now you are going to have to pay it back.  This is going to be hard but there is no escape and just remember, the people who will be telling you that there is an easy way out are the same people who spent your cash and got us into this mess in the first place.  The fact is that all sorts of things which we, the politicians, told you over the years you could absolutely depend upon are not going to happen, or at least, they are not going to happen in the way you might have expected.

However, all is not totally lost.  As a nation we need to make money.  We cannot borrow any more, nor can we print any more because it will then become worthless.  So, what we need are lots of people who know how to make money, so it is vital that we make the UK a place where people who make money are made very welcome by, amongst other things, low tax rates.  Even more important, we need to encourage the money-makers who already live here by cutting their taxes, personal as well as business, so that they are encouraged to make as much money as possible and then keep the money here not overseas.  We want Britain to be a land fit for millionaires!

So, who will give me a vote?

Comments

[A K Haart]

"So, who will give me a vote?"

I will, but people seem to vote for political brands and images. First of all you need a catchy party name. If you call yourself the Duff Party, everyone will ask "which one?"

[David Duff]

Hmmn! You're right, AK. I must follow the practice of my political opponents, what I need is a good PR man to tell me how and what to think! As for the party name, how about the 'Free Plum Duff for Everyone' party? Who could resist that?