We need a lively export economy to bring wealth into our country. This should include both manufactures and services. We manufacture much less than we did and we find it impossible to undercut the prices for manufactured goods charged by China and other lands where labour will work for lower wages. This may even out in time as the Chinese demand higher wages, for instance.
However, the way we must grow is my having competitive advantage of our products and services over our competitors. This means having a lot of bright people beavering away tackling problems that need to be solved for the betterment of the world community.
In other words we will deserve to earn a living in the world if we are doing things and making things that the world really needs. And we can do this.
But there are some reasons why were aren’t doing it very effectively at the moment.
One is that we have come to depend too much on the glitz of the financial sector which appears to offer great returns but where the real growth of real wealth eludes us.
Much better is to come down to earth and realise that there is a lot of stuff to do in the world and in addressing it we can earn an honest living.
One trouble is, though, that we are not turning out a sufficiently well trained workforce. Higher education is based on school education and school education is lacking. Too few people are not fully engaged with education in their younger years and it is hard to pick yourself up by your boot straps if you miss the opportunity the first time around. ie adult catch up education is less successful than making a good start in one’s childhood.
But how do you get young people to settle at school and to appreciate the value of the education that is on offer. I think the answer is an enormous challenge. It is to change the nation’s ethos to one that will energise young people. That will only happen by the adults among us doing things that young people can look up to and feel they want to follow and develop in their own lives.
Also the video about banking explains that the central bank can create money and give it to the government to spend on infrastructure and other things that help us earn a living. This will bring money into the more productive part of the economy and that will have a knock on effect of giving a wider and wider circle of productive firms contracts to fulfil.
We need to be good workers and not to have too high expectations as regards wages, including those in the leading roles in companies. Going to work isn’t something you do just to get paid and pay your bills. It is something you do because it is inherently worthwhile and you are keen to get teh job done well and take a pride in it and see how it fits into the big picture.
Unions need to be on board with this. West Germany after the Second World War worked its way to prosperity by a collaborative effort that management and workers shared in. They pulled together and created out of the ashes a productive export economy. Unions have a job to do to protect their workers’ interests and make sure members get a fair deal. They are less powerful than they were. Labour relations need goodwill from all parties, workers, management and shareholders. Probably we should have works councils to provide a secure forum to keep all informed and to promote unclouded relations within the firm for the good of all and to enable to whole operation to run smoothly and efficiently.
Firms need a cooperative government if they are to thrive. Government tax income depends not only on the percentage charged in taxes of various sorts but on turn over. Keeping Corporation Tax low and red tape to a minimum and maybe even abolishing National Insurance for simplicity’s sake may enable business to thrive and government income to increase.