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'...there is no freedom where the State totally controls the economy. Personal freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t lose one without losing the other.'
She knows a little more than you about the conditions Britain found herself in and what we needed to get her out. Shame we fell behind on our obligations.
Smart, consistent industrial policy is not the same as 'have unions striking until the end of time' or 'poorly managed nationalized industries using capital equipment from the 1920s because the treasury-brained managers refuse to invest in modern machinery and instead raise pay for workers unsustainably high wages for political reasons'. It's not egregious for me to specify 'smart' policy, British management of industry really was just dumb. The stupidity was the problem, not state involvement.
Britain is not Australia or Canada, it cannot coast upon resource wealth. Britain must have a strong manufacturing sector, not a single financial/services hub and everyone else on welfare or make-work.
The way to get real per capita growth is R&D and capital deepening. The state has the power to incentivize both and should do so. The state should not just get out of the way and let the market bring in cheap labour, ignoring the externalities. The state should not just let banks build up a housing bubble (regulations are a major factor in this too) for their own profit, ignoring externalities. The state should not let key industries be sold to foreigners and be asset-stripped.
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