Oh noes! it looks like another socialist government has run out of O.P.M. -- Other People's Money!
For me, Northamptonshire is a case study for how destructive Conservative ideology is. The free market ideal that they chase sounds nice (to some) on paper, but when it isn't working they don't look towards the obvious solutions in fear of losing party identity and looking 'lefty'.
The reality of the right's ideology can be as dangerous to the world as communism to the left is.
Politics needs to evolve now and that has to mean losing these archaic parties and their outdated identities, and choosing pragmatic decision makers.
Otherwise we're constantly left in these states of corrosiveness if a party stays in power for too long.
64
I'm caught between many feelings on this. Why isn't government more transparent? Why didn't people see a $70 million headquarters was a luxury (or a gift to political patrons?) before it was built? The voting populace has got to be more engaged so this malfeasance does not happen to begin with. Now we have to figure out who outside of the local politicians will oversee them.
6
How are all these people who are unable to survive without government support supposed to pay higher taxes?
5
While I sympathise with much of the article the contribution of capital expenditures to the crisis gets scant attention. Why did the council decide to build a 70 million dollar central office building? And there is absolutely no discussion of the council's policies regarding management of its reserves and salary expenditures. The British press has pointed out that the acting chief executive of the council was paid 1000 pounds a DAY over a two year period.
13
I watched a series on Netflix called "Can't Pay, We'll Take It Away!" about several agents who do repossessions, mostly of rental apartments and houses for non-payment. The tenants who are being evicted for non-payment are all immigrants, and the agents, who are really very compassionate, send them (occasionally drive them) to their local Council to be "re-homed." The Councils seemed to be drowning under the pressure of all these re-homings. Women with children have to best chance of being re-homed, but all will get some kind of accommodations. This must be quite costly! Is that not happening in this area too?
4
Austerity in Engand has been quite brutal indeed!
The horrific bedroom tax,cuts to the NHS,cuts to housing,universal credit,privatization of rail,cuts to weather emergency preparedness,just as droughts and floods have endangered food supplies,tax cuts for the rich etc,etc.
Oligarchs are gobbling up housing in London.Housing insecurity and displacement are rampart.Growing anxiety among young people,student debt etc are worrisome.
This inequality, as in the US,has prompted many poor people to vote against their own interests(Brexit)
The BBC directs their focus on identifying issues and problems around the world,especialy in the US but is loathe to discuss England's problems. Fluffpieces on the Monarchy are subsitutes for national introspection.
The US and England have many problems in common but,so far,the US has been more wiling to air their problems.
The Guardian's UK section has to be found via Google since it's not referenced on the newspaper's front page.
25
Living in a county next door to Northamptonshire, my understanding has been the sheer incompetency and spending on vanity projects caused this mess. Northamptonshire was always known as the county of spires and squires. It indeed does have an overload of aristocracy that should long ago have been consigned to history. Even a very elite fee paying school within the county operates as a charity, so essentially has a free ride. The Conservatives are useless but the sad fact is that if Jeremy Corbyn and Labour came to power the whole country would be ruined even quicker. In the UK we suffer from self seeking, useless politicians who regard the voting public as know nothing serfs.
24
Oh, cool. So this whole belief that the value of your money is an independent thing, untethered to the rest of the world, is not just an affliction of American "conservatives". It's everywhere!
The dumbness of savaging the collective good so that you can buy a slightly bigger car or whatever becomes a little too apparent when your council stops paving the roads that car would drive on, hey.
23
For 'austerity', read: 'class war in reverse'.
18
And yet the Conservatives keep on getting elected.
9
Dear Americans, take notice of what is happening in Northamptonshire. This will happen to you too, in a few years. America will be bankrupt, nation wide and not only as a county.
It will not effect the Rich, same as in England, but all others will suffer heavily.
28
(I can't say it better than Justice Holmes, centuries ago now)
What did Oliver Wendell Holmes say about taxes?
“Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” The famous quote by US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. is inscribed above the entrance to the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service.
What is the definition of a civilized society?
1. : marked by well-organized laws and rules about how people behave with each other. A civilized society must respond to crime with fairness and justice. a more civilized culture. a person known throughout the civilized world [=everywhere people live in well-organized and developed societies]
THIS TAKES TAX-MONEY! "Conservatives" or the "Conservative-Agenda" in every country & culture has become, "conserve my wealth at your expense".
29
The NY Times becomes ever more indistinguishable from The Guardian. The British media is intensely ideological and so NYT used to be good for a bit of balance, especially in news stories. What’s telling is what is left out, which is that local authorities burn cash, and nowhere more so than on their own gold-plated pensions. Local government in the UK is usually ineffective and inefficient and stubbornly unreformable but to portray their problems as a consequence of austerity, simply, is not to provide a recognisable picture.
8
If GB allows the entry of 50,000 immigrants yearly, eligible for welfare payments which even citizens r not entitled to, what should 1 expect?Was not the ghastly Britain that 1 lives in today, where to be native born, white, is to be considered a "citoyen(ne) de deuxieme zone," compared to those who have immigrated from abroad,foreseen by Conservative M.P and classical scholar, Enoch Powell in his excellent speech of a half century ago, "Rivers of Blood"?The p.c. refrain is that multiracial Britain works, which, mutatis mutandis, is true, but not when you allow tens of thousands to enter yearly who depend on the state for basic services, and the same amenities are denied to poor whites. It's a racial issue, if 1 must employ that invalid term, and those who have been made to feel like "foreigners in their own land," are average Britons. Contrast the poverty among "petits blancs"excellently researched by Times newspaper, with the 40 million euros spent on the extravagant wedding, and if 1 is an average bloke, he realizes that he no longer has a say in how his country is run, or who comes in!People of Northampton, we feel your pain, which is why so many of us cast our ballots for Trump, who may not have the charisma to solve all of our problems, but at least we can say, "Il nous a compris!"
5
Of course, another place where council spending cuts (along with other factors, yes) had an influence is a certain building called Grenfell Tower. Cut-cut-cut the social housing bill! Sprinklers cost money. Fireproof material costs money!*
*And that’s not even getting into the cuts to the Fire Brigade’s funding.
13
I live in Northampton and I see every day the utter mess that the town and county have got us into. Stupidity in local government is not new here. Way back in 1857, the town refused permission to build a main line train station in the centre of town as “trains are a passing phase and the canal are the transport of the future.” I cite from the Records of Northampton Corporation.
The descendants of these morons refused IKEA permission to build on the outskirts of the town as “it would take trade away from the town centre.” IKEA, it’s jobs and its taxes now flourish in the next county.
21
Overturn. Brexit. Referendum.
14
You ain't seen nothin' yet!
Just wait until after Brexit. Then wholesale slaughter will start.
17
Brilliant article and I can say that as someone who actually lives in Northampton. The Conservatives are at a dead end, reliant on bribing the elderly (the most active voters) by driving up the price of their houses. Of course the young can't afford to buy their own houses or pay rent on business premises etc but what good are the young for anyway?
They Conservatives are also hamstrung by a zealous belief in privatising/outsourcing absolutely everything from trains to gas to trash collection instead of operating a functional mixed economy as in Germany. So, train fares, gas bills continue to increase despite crummy service while shareholders get their cut but wages stagnate & people spend huge chunks of their income on rents and mortgages.
I'd critique the part saying that Northants is wealthy. Go to Northampton which is down at heel. The shoe industry there was destroyed by capitalists, so the Town became reliant on the logistics and service industries, now they pay minimum wage so how do you make a life in Northampton for everybody?
Go to the Eastern District which was built to house for overspill workers, now forgotten and decaying.
This is absolutely the fault of the Conservative government despite attempts to pin it on local councillors.
There is an underclass here and the Conservatives will not address it. It's a dangerous game the more the old middle class get sucked into what is now known as the "working poor".
45
The Times seems gleeful to report of a failed conservative led party austerity. How sad, and typical. US policymakers who only focus on austerity are mistaken, liberals who only focus on "soaking the rich" and raising taxes also are mistaken. Every town, every county, city and country needs to think about how to grow their economy and generate tax revenues, reasonable tax revenues. The articles description of the town sounds like so many in the US too. What are the towns doing in this article to promote new businesses in their downtowns? How can they encourage people from the big cities to locate there? Population growth is important! What about the landed gentry selling some land to someone who wants to do some farming, how about some specialty organic produce? Sounds like the property taxes for these English towns may be too low if nothing changes, but perhaps commercial taxes, taxes on wages, labor and business profits can be lowered to stimulate people to create more opportunity and jobs. Get to work and re-imagine a town less sleepy and more vibrant!
1
I have to laugh at the apparently free loading Spencer family estate. Maybe they can help out by starting another Downton Abbey series showing how the aristocracy has finagled their way keeping on top even into the 21st century.
The loss of basic services is perhaps its also another example of a form of cosmic justice where people get what they voted for.
8
How is that Margaret Thatcher Revolution working over there?
To be clear, I am not goading. Here in America we have the same problem. And the whole of Kansas is worse, unless you are the Koch clan whose children don't have to go to public schools
26
Terrible. The last ten years since the crash and were still in a depression ( the people, not GDP) wages stagnant, child poverty & wealth inequality increasing
11
I encourage everyone in Northampton to watch the BBC program "The Town that Took on the Taxman" (58.58 minutes) available on YouTube. Another is "The UK Gold" about the City aka the Square Mile aka London's Financial Centre.
The UK leads the world in tax havens for the rich and especially for multinational corporations. Their tax avoidance shifts the burden to we the people via budget cuts and/or higher taxes.
30
The one question left unanswered is what would happen if you made the royalty that own most of the land pay their fair share? What impact would that have on revenue. I don't begrudge them their holdings but its not the 16th century anymore so they should be required to contribute more.
25
@michael s It wouldn't come close to making up the shortfall the Northants council have got at the moment. Also, the government is against building on the greenbelt so that land would remain as is regardless of who owned it
1
@michael s It would be interesting to see the outcome if every citizen knew the truth about how much land is owned by the aristocracy, the church etc. Particularly in relation to such land paid through profits from slavery or enclosing of common land.
10
So what's the answer? Higher taxes after all? Taxing the agricultural areas? Running deficits anyway?
1
@CHM Yes higher taxes work if all pay. Not just the 99% as in this country!
8
As someone who lives in this county and who this directly effects, I would also like to point out that this council new they were in trouble for a long time, and they went and spent lots of money on new council buildings they didn't even need, and squandered no end of money on all sorts, and the council leader wouldn't leave till the very end... they are an utter bloody disgrace!
44
@An English person
You are spot on mate, Heather Smith has been involved in if not spearheading closures and cuts in our local area not only since austerity was introduced but way before!! I saw her close down children and young people's services coming on 20 years ago in Corby and across Northamptonshire, and it's only gotten worse with each misguided, stupid, totally unrealistic venture they have come up with. We would be better off with Boldrick running the council at least he had a "cunning plan!"
3
@An English person to be fair they were trying to reduce outgoings by consolidating buildings - however a complete new build in town was not the right way to do it.
3
Yes, but if we cut spending on everything except the military and cut taxes for the rich, won't we all be in heaven?
35
@Alan Snipes: you do realize this is Great Britain? and not the USA?
Conservative policies on taxes and government are uniformly a failure, no matter what country we are talking about. A conservative is someone who demands services, but is unwilling to pay for them.
54
@Casey
And, even worse, a conservative moves all liability to the public side of the ledger and keeps the profits private. For example, we subsidize the fossil fuel industry with the "depletion allowance", saving the industry billions of dollars in taxes every year, but... when dozens of fracking companies went bankrupt, guess who got to pick up the tab for cleanup of the so called "orphaned" wells - oh, that would be the taxpayer. There are currently approximately 60,000 "orphaned" wells, and another 90,000 whose status is "unknown". There are > 160,000 "orphaned" hard rock mines in the US with over 31,000 known instances of environmental degradation from the mine tailings. There are over 5000 "orphaned" coal mines in Pennsylvania alone, where the estimated cost of cleanup is $15 billion (tax payer dollars).
Bonding requirements for, says the fracking industry to frack on public lands are $10,000 per lease. The average number of wells per lease is five - or $2000 per well. The average cost to cap an "orphaned" fracking well is > $20,000 per well. Some wells require > $500,000 to clean up. A Google search on this issue yields dozens of hits referring to the costs being borne by the taxpayer to clean up "orphaned" wells & mines.
This is the conservative playbook:
1) provide corporate welfare
2) place the liability of doing business on the taxpayer who must then decide to say, fund the clean up or close the libraries
3) demand cuts in services to balance the budget...
63
@Charlie Well said!
As always, folks are glad to spend money from the national government, but when it comes to taxing themselves for services, no one wants to pay. It's the same in the US as in the UK.
"Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax the guy behind the tree."
33
The irony, of course, is that the majority of citizens in Northants voted for a Conservative council and Conservative MPs. Apparently none of them read the small print - just like the other whining Tories a few years ago amazed to find the benefit cuts that they had feverishly voted for included their tax credits.
Those of us who read the manifestos, the small print and follow Parliamentary news knew exactly what was in store, and voted in a responsible fashion. However, all that aside, the council still needs bailing out so it can meet the vital needs of its community.
Maybe it’s time to give proportional representation a try, hm? Maybe we can get some more representative councils and governments instead of the usual dogmatic seat-stuffers working on edicts handed down from the ideologues in MHCLG?
25
@Mat the press coverage would have been 1000% times worse if we had been a Labour council.
2
At some point people begin to wake up as did the teachers in very conservative Oklahoma, Virgina, South Carolina and conservative Colorado. They took matters into their own hands and went on strike protesting lack of funds for education and teachers.
Yep - let's hope all those teachers in those red states and towns vote D come November.
39
@Elizabeth: sure powerful unions can strike -- even though TEACHERS already get 6 hour days, and 180 day YEAR and all summer off with pay, and automatic tenure and can never be fired and can retire at 52 with a 90% pension for life (plus Cadillac gold plated health care for life for FREE)....but who is going to PAY for their luxe benefits and salaries?
At some point the BILL for giving in to greedy teachers will come due, and THEN WHAT?
Seriously, no one uses the term austerity in the UK anymore. People stopped talking about years ago, especially since Brexit. Besides 'Austerity' reducing the budget deficit by raising taxes and decreases expenditure. The tax burden has not gone up since 2010 and public expenditure has gone up.
SO:
1. Austerity never happened in the UK
2. No one talks about 'austerity' anymore in the UK
I can write your articles about the UK if you want?
6
@A British Libertarian
seriously?
Very many people talk about austerity in the UK! The Labour Party released a video on the very subject today.
People are suffering and even dying as a direct result of it.
The overall net tax / deficit sum may be zero, but it is made up of some very big gainers and some desperately poor losers.
If I gain £1000 and you lose £1000 - net change zero 'hurrah everything in the garden is roses' but I am better off and you are poorer. and perhaps can't afford the rent or pay the council tax for a month.
Slick semantics won't cut it.
28
Erm, maybe in your part of the country where gold apparently flows out of the taps. Where I am, ‘austerity’ is used very often by the everyday person - and we’re not even in the hardest hit areas. It also regularly appears in political reporting and Parliamentary debates. Look at the debates over military funding, prison funding, health funding, education, Grenville, Northampton - only the other day the Met was laying into the PM over the cuts in police numbers due to austerity-inspired, mandated “efficiency savings”. Do you know what “efficiency savings” actually means? Only a few months ago that schoolboy in Defence was at loggerheads with the Treasury because of military funding - why? The Chancellor wants spending down as a continuation of Osbo’s deficit planning. Oh, and the papers were recently discussing rising crime in London as an effect of...austerity cuts to policing! And don’t get me started on the experience of the NHS since austerity measures were implemented.
Are you sure you’re actually in the UK? Read the news? The Tories made hay with the phrase “Broken Britain” - yet since 2010 they smashed the broken pieces into fragments. No wonder we’re all circling the drain.
4
Common phrase down my part of the country from those feeling it’s effects. Crops up regularly in the news too. Spending is up because govt pushed it all too far and they started getting chased with bad headlines re crime stats, A&E queues, prison riots, closing Gove Schools etc. Quick, throw money at the problem! That’ll stop them moaning!
Plus Brexit-voting communities are all expecting govt to fulfil all EU infrastructure spending when the big Brexity rainbow unicorn utopia occurs. I’m not holding my breath...
19
Sounds just like the “Brownback Miracle” in Kansas.
Remember 50 years ago when conservatives said they were the responsible ones when it came to money? No more.
47
@David That came to mind immediately for me as well. They slashed funding for schools and roads, to give massive tax cuts to the mega-rich. The trickle-down jobs never materialized, which is weird, because the Koch Brothers are from Kansas (guess they didn't get the memo).
Meanwhile, Minnesota did the exact opposite, and had the opposite result.
42
@Steve Acho
But why on earth would Minnesota have come within a hair of voting for trump?
@mancuroc Just good old-fashioned racism. It places blame on anyone with skin of color, the religion that isn't Christian, disabled, foreign, refugee etc. Wins every time.
1
I wonder why it is that the population of some countries are so deluded and high-maintenance. You can't have robust social services with no taxes. It just doesn't happen. I would understand if a populace wanted no taxes and have everyone fend for themselves. That's dumb, but some people believe it. I'd also understand if a population tolerated higher rates of taxes for higher social benefit. That's smart, and some people manage it. But trying to 'have your cake and eat it too' isn't just dumb; it's childish. Though saying that, I realize it's an insult to children. Children are smarter than that.
51
@Roaroa Truly, it is the very rich who benefit. They pay little or no taxes. Everyone else is on the dole so to speak.
2
The conservative, anti government crowd leave out an important part of their goal - no government equals no life. Good government is what intelligent people form. People cannot afford catastrophic health care costs - so we form national health care care systems to share the load and float all boats - what intelligent people do, The Trump health care attitude, from what we have seen so far, might as well be called HUAD - "Hurry Up And Die". But...it's free.
33
Ladies and Gents, welcome to the future of America.
36
"Northamptonshire is affluent". This is the proverbial thirteenth chime of the cuckoo clock that makes one doubt everything that went before (and after). The average income in the UK is about £35,000. Most of Northamptonshire is significantly below that average. Unemployment in the UK is now about 4.5 percent. Large parts of Northamptonshire has unemployment that is above the national average, including Northampton itself. However, being accurate and honest about the County's "affluence" would rather spoil the bogus story here advanced that it is central government that has caused its bankruptcy, rather than the incompetence of its own elected officials and the ineffectiveness of the local administration. When a State in the US teeters on the brink of insolvency, no one blames the Federal Government. The UK is no different.
16
The Conservatives have completely lost their way. Austerity was preached all over the EU after 2008. It had a terrible effect. But EU changed course and brought about a better economic conditions. The Conservatives, however, have held tightly to their misguided belief that having local gov'ts collapse will create the framework for an economic recovery. Brexit showed how seriously out of touch the hard core Conservative members are. The May gov't has come to conclusion that just cutting ties to the EU would be economically disastrous. Jeremy Corbin might get his chance to be PM
19
Cut libraries, education, healthcare, services to the elderly, public parks and other public facilities, not to mention maintenance of basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges. All in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy.
We have seen the future in Higham Ferrers and it is us.
91
It's not the council that did this to themselves, it's the people who insisted on voting Conservative that did it. People are stupid. They want services for free. Who doesn't want "free" services? But nothing on this planet is "free". So then, the Conservatives complain about "waste". OK, I buy that, sure there's "waste". But they never stop at the "waste". They cut through the fat deep into bone and still insist that there's too much tax money floating around. So here's news to the voters in Northamptonshire: If you want your roads repaired, you'd better open your wallets and vote Labour next time.
65
Because when I think of financial responsibility, the Labour party is the first thing that comes to mind.
3
Exactly!
@MarkKA
"Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences."
Robert Louis Stevenson
You get what you vote for... even if you are clueless at what "it" is.
The Kraken has been released, and, as always, he has no flight plan.
1
Eventually, you get what you vote for. Or what you allow by NOT voting.
November. The BEST Month.
31
@Phyliss Dalmatian: Yes...November 2016!!! the best month EVER!
Still dancing and smiling, Phyliss!
1
If they were facing bankruptcy why did they open a new 70 million dollar headquarters building? Seems a bit out of control.
19
Taxes are the price of a civil society.
98
@Eugene
Taxes are also the price of quality of life.
14
It's been the Conservative goal since the mid-90's to drown the government in a bathtub. They've now had almost 20 years of dominance world-wide, so we shouldn't be surprised to find they've succeeded in some cases and that there are more on the horizon.
I can understand that people are upset at the consequences, but please don't be surprised. And, we won't start righting the ship until we stop voting for them.
29
“I am happy to apologize,” said Richard Auger, a Tory councilor. “I think mistakes were made,” he added. “It’s a situation we’re responsible for.”
I never thought I would see an apology from a government official in print. I find that incredibly astonishing.
“I honestly believed that the government would not let us sink because we were a Conservative authority,” said Ms. Smith, the former council leader. “But I was wrong. They were quite happy to just throw us out and annihilate us, really.”
I never thought I would see government officials turn their backs on their citizens like this. I find that truly alarming.
11
@Marge Keller we find it alarming and the solution is to send in more inspectors to disband the current set up an merge it into 2 new ones. Only 1% of the population responsded to a consultation and 59% of those were against the new proposal. Basically most residents couldnt give a monkeys about their local provider of social care, roads , waste disposal etc.. we have no hope.
We do the same thing in the USA, refuse to match spending to tax revenues and let someone else down the road deal with it.
The George W. Bush tax cuts were set to expire after 10 years but in 2012 after Obama's reelection Obama let Biden cut a deal with McConnell to only let 20% of the tax cuts expire and to keep 80% of the tax cuts. So we've had tax cuts under Reagan, Bush, Obama and Trump. Continual deficit spending. Let the next generation pay for it.
To be fair, sometimes we did raise taxes, Reagan, the first Bush, Clinton and Obama all raised taxes.
28
I will bet a dollar to donuts that the citizenry of Northamptonshire was all for austerity in Greece a few years back. What goes around comes around.
52
@Miss B
Greece spent irresponsibly for years on pensions and social services without taxing at the rate necessary to keep themselves solvent. As I'm sure you read in this article, the problem with local English councils isn't irresponsible spending, but rather a cutback in money coming from the central government and a cap on taxes many of the councils would be willing to increase if only they could.
This is an apples-to-oranges comparison, and English councils' budgetary problems have nothing whatsoever to do with any sort of karmic return.
11
@Sixofone, they are karmic return for the Conservatives' ideologically driven tax cutting (favoring business, naturally) at the national level.
3
Not a big surprise, 'small government' conservatives are all for slashing government spending and 'getting people out of dependency on the government'..until it effects them. It is why the "red states" in the US are such hypocrites, they talk about government being the problem yet are the places that generally get back a ton more from the government than they give, and continue to benefit from the government. Anyone notice that with the election of Der Trump, suddenly budget deficits don't matter, the tea party heroes are nowhere to be found,no rallies, no idiots in uncle Sam costumes? Basically most conservatives are only that when it is other people reaching into the government's pocket, as Fagin in "Oliver Twist" would say "someone having their pocket picked is only a shame if it wasn't one of us who done the picking".
76
One would think the Brits would knower better with John Maynard Keynes being a fellow Brit. Considered the eminent authority by estemned economists worldwide, excluding those of conservative idiotology and for good reason, It has been soundly proved that Keynesenian tenets of government spending in the time of recession is the pathway back to good economic health. Obama and Pelosi wisely put legislation through of just that blocked by Congressional Republicans. And here we go again full throttle with conservative nonsense again but this time their greed is brazen.
20
It is what they planned all the time. Now they don't have to pay for those services and in time the citizens will no longer expect their entitlement as county citizens. It is what is happening everywhere. The elite have stolen the entitlements fairly granted to the counties citizens. Such is life... currently.
12
It's kind of funny how the Conservative rich keep soap boxing about "socialist" programs such as food assistance, Obama care, etc, but expect to have all their government services without ever having to pay taxes to pay for them. Yet, the middle class, and the poor, carry the majority of the tax burden, to cover what the rich don't pay. In fact, when "Reagan-omics" failed, Reagan raised the taxes on the two less affluent groups for 7 of his 8 years, and then tapped Social Security for the first time ever (which has today led to it's very shaky solvency!), just to cover the deficit his "trickle down" created, which the Republicans are now repeating! The rich want their cake and to eat it too, they just don't want to pay for it, while telling the lower income groups, "Let them eat cake." that they cannot afford. Odd...
28
@Mike OD
well - no - once again, the top 10% of income earners pay 71% of all Federal Income tax.
...and almost half of Americans won't pay any federal income tax.
7
@SteveRR Of course that does not take into account payroll tax, state and local taxes, and sales taxes. In any case, the after tax incomes of the upper 10% continue to grow, because they are getting a larger and larger share of the pie, while everyone else's after tax income is about the same or worse year to year. If the gains from economic growth were more broadly shared, the distribution of federal income tax would change too.
2
76% of the wealth in the U.S. is controlled by 10% of families. The issue is not that a few pay, the issue is the concentration of wealth.
20
It seems conservatives world wide love the same policies that don’t work, trickle down and austerity. Policies that don’t affect the rich.
20
This is where Obama failed in the US, in the fact of the tea party protests, and the GOP with its "we gotta slash spending and balance the budget" and created the budget sequestration process, Obama refused to do what he could have, told them "you want a 20% reduction in spending?" and proceed to slash education spending to places like South Carolina (40% of its education budget comes from Uncle Sam), get rid of the ethanol program and slash farm subsidies at a time when commodity prices were at all time highs, slash the block grants that allow a lot of the red states to operate...and then watch them squirm, because of course to the good farmers and rural people and southerners, 'they don't get nothing from the govn'ment, all they do is pay"
10
@bill d
You err.
6
This article might be a little confusing for some. As mentioned in the article, the cuts are in response to the actions taken immediately after the great recession of 2008. Brexit is completely different. Roughly 70% of the GDP of the country is in the southeast and in services. The people in the southeast, who largely voted for remain, have not had the opportunity to pay back those in the rural areas that voted to leave for the economic pain that they have inflicted. When we get to the point of a no deal situation with the EU, it will be interesting to see what happens with the overall percentage of remittances from the southeast to the rest of the country.
14
So the UK has it’s own private Kansas.
88
Even Kansas reversed course in some areas when reserves drained dry. Not enough, as it proves, but enough to rile the conservative base.
8
@John Exactly my thought. The details may be different, but the Tories ran Northamptonshire like Sam Brownback and company ran Kansas, with similar outcomes. Their "Next Generation Model" is the British equivalent of the Laffer Curve.
23
"Vote for us and we'll close your libraries and kick you off your medical plan." And it works! How do they manage that?
107
Here in Thailand they have an apt phrase, 'Som nam na', loosely translated as 'You got what you deserve'. Conservatives love to keep their money and starve the government. Then blame poor people. Welcome to the real world, conservatives.
82
They got what they wanted and voted for and they're still not happy. We told you so.
30
" councilors are stripping away all but the minimum services required by law."
Good. It's working.
4
@George Orwell And now, as the majority of people are forced to live at a survival level, explain to me the advantages of capitalism.
8
There was an excellent report on Panorama a couple years ago about the UK's use of Public Private Partnerships and the disastrous results it had led to, from crumbling hospitals to private playgrounds. Whether one left-wing or right-wing, the fundamental premise should remain the same: how much money is needed to provide the services constituents expect of government?
What truly shocks me is how local councils could be so far removed and disdainful to their constituents that relied on these services. While nobody likes paying taxes, when they see their money being put to good use, they are not going to begrudge a couple of dollars more per year.
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Wanna bet? Just see how people step up to help the local schools at a bond election.
2
Current conservative ideology is itself bankrupt. What they have been working to conserve is wealth at the upper levels rather than the stability of society. This zero sum game approach starts to hurt when you chop off the roots of your own tree. And what makes it so difficult to correct is the use of money in politics and media that has allowed them to convince those at the bottom that the cause for the problems is the less fortunate.
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@bruce
To the point! Exactly!
"But Nigel and Boris told me that Brexit would make me better off.
And they seem so believable!"
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One of the easy ways for higher levels of government to "cut spending" is to reduce subsidies and support for lower levels of government. Then they blabber about how they have cut taxes and spending - when the reality is that they have just shifted costs.
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Yep, exactly what Texas pulled.
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@Ivan
There is only ONE taxpayer and they pay into all levels of government and have the right to expect rational use of their money.
The lottery system where upper levels of government transfer moneys to other levels of governments to support their incompetence is obviously beloved of all of the incompetent small town governments out there.
Particularly in the UK there are many many taxpayers in the large urban centers [currently about 83% of the total population] who are tired of their taxes going to subsidize the imaginative social programs and investments of small-town-UK - did you see that picture of the new HQ building?
5
@Ivan
An additional step is to prevent the local councils from raising the council tax on housing for several years. Eventually they have to rise but that rise is restricted.
The local tax is based on the value of the housing in grades A, B, C etc. It is noticeable that the grades stop at a value far short of the cost of the houses of the rich so they do not pay at a rate higher than the middle class.
1
Well, Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Denmark anymore.
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British "conservatives:" don't worry; here in America the same right-wing economic snake oil has been proven over and over to be disastrous, but voters will fall for it every time.
Let someone else come in for a few years to make the hard choices and clean up your mess, and then you can ride right back into power on the same promises. See, for example, the American Republican party.
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@Pat Plato was mostly talking about Republicans when he said democracies eventually fail because the people will not vote for self-sacrifice.
4
It's the same in so many countries: conservative ideology is based on self-centered individualism, keeping your income to yourself for private use. The corollary is to minimize taxes, which means minimizing spending on public services because that means sharing your income for social programming of benefit to the community at large. So they invent fictions that you can eat your cake and have it: keep taxes low and keep public services running. There is an irreconcilable contradiction in this position which this article clearly demonstrates. Those who still believe in Republican tax cuts should take note. Bankruptcy can be around the corner - yes, it could happen to any jurisdiction that systematically spends more than it takes in.
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@Mark
Galbraith put it best: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
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I think you will find cut backs across most businesses and governments in the Western World despite their political standing.
1
Except in joints like Portugal and California. Guess what kinds of governments they have.
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@Robert I'm hard pressed to come up with the commonalities between the governments of Portugal and California. What are they?
Yes, old cities and towns are in econmic distress, much of it their own doing. Our own US cities are also in decay, our infrastructure has suffered from years of abuse and neglect. Take a trip around the country, San Francisco is a sanctuary city filled with addicts and homeless. New York city is an international city filled with non-english speaking immigrants. Areas of Florida are also blighted. I am encouraged by the amount of building I see. I recently visited NY City, there were cranes everywhere ( cranes = jobs ). Flint, Michigan allowed the poisoning of it's residents. Money, money, money. Everybody wants it, including the local, state and federal collection agencies. It takes time and a booming economy to climb out of the large hole the country has found itself in. The economy is rocking now so let's hope for some good luck, 911 set us back terribly, pray for no more of that stuff.
9
Such a collection of random nonsense!
NYC is bad because it is filled with "non english [sic] speaking immigrants." And, like Florida, it is blighted because of construction cranes.
And people recommend this?
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@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman 911 set us back, but the housing collapse during the Bush administration nearly did us in. If it weren't for the enormous cash infusion by the democrats and Obama, we might look like Northampton. So soon they forget.
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This is what happens when people make ideological political decisions in a vacuum with no consideration of the economic implications. Brexit is not happening.
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@Amy Bonanno
Brexit is happening, just not in an orderly fashion. The Conservatives are all in and Mr Corbyn and Labour are supportive of leaving the undemocratic and highly NeoLiberal EU. The problem is not the concept of the EU- just the reality of it.
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@David Gregory
Britains, including their conservatives, are looking at the feasibility of having another Brexit vote as the sentiment among the population has shifted so significantly that it would be considered undemocratic to still proceed.
The Brexit cheerleaders are washing their hands of it all - Boris is leaving Britain altogether for the greener pastures of France.
3
Austerity, as in the current UK financial trend, was implemented by the 2010 coalition government led by David Cameron. It predates Brexit, having its roots in traditional conservative fanaticism and intensified by the 2008 recession. Austerity is one of the many reasons why Brexit happened, but the latter did not birth the former.
8