Something has gone very wrong with society

UK gets more like the third world every year, it's a puzzle.

course it does. like lifting billions out of poverty, starvation and miserable serf-like toiling. fuelling the industrial revolution, technological innovation, medical advancements, freedom of thought , the law of contract and property that builds confidence and has benefited humanity immensely

and thats just off the top of me melon

it works everywhere. free trade crushes govt. controlled economies

socialism does not, which i bet you are. all the socialist states have produced is repression, starvation and death. from the ussr on to china korea cuba venezuela

Not sure its capitalism as things (compered to today) where ok up to around 2015 when woke reared its ugly head and took over from political correctness.

If you view capitalisms stage as 'austerity' probably yes. Things going downhill since the financial crisis in 2008 and exacerbated by covid,brexit,Russia and now the US/Iran. No investment in law/prisons,hospitals, infra-structure,etc. It is showing and affecting people,ie cost of living,inflation, people are worse off and struggling generally,not all but many.

I still believe most people are reasonable and polite,it is a minority who aren't.

Funnily enough, the GFC practically ruined the Irish economy, but they copied the UK capitalist economy (eg low tax) and we went socialist.

And the outcome is super predictable and inevitable.

It's just tipped over 3 trillion. Rounding error

Pretty sure your numbers are the annual budget deficit ;)

Inflation excepted, the Labour gvnt borrowed more last year than they spend on the banking bailout.

That's the point, we've had a socialist government since the GFC. The government will keep on borrowing money until the whole thing goes pop.

As you've eruditely outlined, we've not spent much of it on anything worthwhile. I'm counting paying people not to work for two years in that.

Yeah thanks, that's me a bit erudite. We agree they have basically 'jack' to show for it and simply making a balls of running it as a 'plc' at least. Everyone should be deliriously happy at this stage in the evolution scale but not to be.

But it's when we turned away from capitalism. Mass immigration, tax, spend, waste.

The capitalist way of dealing with the casino banks would have been to let them fail.

B R E X I T

Has Escapee been banded now? I expected him to be on here blaming Trump.

Maybe Rampton have found him at last Shrewd