The Importance of Other People's hard Work

 The Importance of Other People's hard Work

    I noticed an article in The Daily Telegraph (Miss Chang, 22 July 20230) pointing out that the USA is getting relatively richer while the UK is getting relatively poorer, dropping from the worlds richest country (GDP per head) to the 5th. I wondered if the British knew just as well as the Americans how hard they wanted to work, and how much leisure time they wanted. Perhaps we have got it right  – for us. 

    Who, exactly, wants the British nation to work harder. Not, I suspect the British workers. Perhaps it is the owners, the directors, the accountants, and the stock market speculators. All of whom would benefit, without themselves having to work harder.  

    There seems no longer any doubt that capitalism is more successful than communism at making a country rich, but it gets rich at some considerable cost in sweat and blood; cost to the workers, and their immediate bosses. For the owners, however, there is very little to do, other than watch their bank balances grow.

    Another economic statistic that bears thinking about, is GDP per capita. There are a number of fluky countries away out at the top of the list; like Monaco and Lichtenstein. But why are Norway, Ireland, and Denmark as high as (or higher than) the USA, and therefore much higher than Britain? 

    Better distribution, perhaps. so wealth more fairly spread. (The wealth of the very, very rich may do rather little for the benefit of mankind, in general). Or do we British spend too much of our money on guns, bombs and battleships?

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