The Productive Pessimist

  Take some time sometime to go onto YouTube (other platforms are available), and look for documentaries on "the  world's most expensive xyz..." If you watch those documentaries fully - ideally several of them in a ro w (they make a great background if you're working from home, doing creative projects, or getting through the house work) , you'll notice something: All of these expensive products - some selling for literally thousands of dollars a piece - are made slo wly. Often very slo wly. Days at a minimum, more commonly years. And these products are still very much in demand. Many companies are struggling to keep up with demand, because - globally, including in "countries that don't pamper people with bs like a ' welfare state!' - businesses of all types are experiencing recruitment challenges. People aren't arguing the toss over the cost of these products - they're paying deposits to join years-long waiting lists for them. So, ...

  End of the road for economic growth in the UK? The UK government - and most Western European governments - hyperfixate on economic growth  as a measure of political success: If growth is strong, the claim goes, then the government of the day are doing things right, regardless of how popular their policies are with the public.  If growth slows, the government has clearly made the wrong decision, and needs to alter course, and prove that they deserve  to be in charge. This is something that has become a sacred truth in government.  "This will destroy  growth!"  "This risks crashing  UK growth prospects!" have become ever-more aggressive reactions to policy suggestions from opposing parties, or individual politicians.  Initially, I assumed this was deliberate fear-mongering; because the public associates "economic growth" with " my  individual life improving, me as an individual  having more money for less work, and everything gettin...

  The Bank of England is expressing significant concerns about Britain's "ageing and ailing workforce", harmonising to the government's tune of how the long-term sick are responsible for the UK economic challenges, and how "necessary" raising the State pension age is. Those two songs have been a more or less constant refrain from various shades of UK governments since 1997 - almost 30years.  Pretty much my whole life, and the entirety of my life as someone old enough to vote. Of course, work is necessary.  Countries have essential core services which require vast workforces to provide and administrate. Governments should be generating national income by exporting from the manufacturing, STEM, creative, and knowledge economy sectors, all of which require their own skilled and specialist workforces, and the workforce of their respective administrative and marketing functions. Continuous income, to cover the unavoidable payment lags in exports, is necessary fo...