Wednesday 31 March 2010

California: just like Scotland

The YouTube is from the Reason site

The problems with public sector workers are:

1. They cost too much.
2. We can't fire them.
3. They create a permanent lobby for expanded government and higher taxes.

This article in today's Scotsman talks about possible cuts in government expenditure:

The First Minister will meet Mr Darling in London to call for a further injection of spending for Scotland, arguing a fiscal stimulus to help the recovery is needed.

But it comes after Crawford Beveridge, the man leading the SNP government's review of his budget, said that privatising Scottish Water should be considered as a way of reducing the Scottish Government's costs. It currently pays £150 million a year for the utility.

Mr Beveridge, who also sits on the Scottish Government's panel of economic advisers, went on to suggest that, in the search for savings, the pensioners' free bus pass scheme should be restricted and the NHS should not be exempt from cuts.

A possible cut mentioned in the print version is:
If wage rises in the public sector were frozen to inflation-only, ministers would save an approximate £450m over three years
But that's not a "cut". It's not giving a rise.

The whole western world seems to be in a downward spiral that's leading to bankruptcy. There'll be a last ditch attempt to avoid bankruptcy by stealing all private savings but the end point is clear.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Colin Finlay
The teaching fraternity in Britain need to begin acting like the Professionals they purport to be, namely by behaving like the other professionals in our lives (e.g. the family lawyer and doctor) and eschewing strike action whenever they feel inclined ( i.e., when the harebrained Marxist theories about pupil equality are not being strictly enforced). 
 
 Hands up everyone who enjoys irony and cannot help but laugh out loud when teachers ignore the facts of Mendelian biology, claiming that pupils must not, under pain of "inequality", be "streamed" to suit their varying IQs. Yet those pedagogical Pharisees face, on a day - to - day basis, the obvious realities of cognitive difference and continue down old Marx's cul - de - sac.

21 April 2010, 10:26:21 GMT+01:00
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David Farrer
Subrosa, 
 
See today (Saturday)

3 April 2010, 16:05:35 GMT+01:00
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Subrosa
David, if the SNP privatise Scottish Water they'll lose so many votes in this area anyway.  What would be bound to happen is that prices would go sky high.

1 April 2010, 02:43:47 GMT+01:00