Source link: http://archive.mises.org/2465/the-51st-state/
The 51st State
September 10, 2004 by Sean Corrigan
In the UK, just like the US proper, in this current cycle, while capital investment has been barely at replacment levels and while manufacturing has been decimated, consumerism has run amok (with both central bank and government connivance), as household debt has risen by c.1% of disposable income per month every month over the past 2 1/2 years and not only are we, too, living beyond our means largely by extracting “equity” from the housing bubble on an unprecedented scale (c. 7% of income in the past two years) …. but, guess what ?
We, too now have an energy crisis (we just clocked up the first oil trade deficit in over a decade and one of the few since N Sea came on stream – production there is off 12% in a year and we’re about to run out of NatGas, also) …
We, too register record trade gaps, with a 3.5% GDP overall, 5.2% goods ( = 14% of total two-way trade) imbalance.. the overall tally for which should come in between GBP35-40 bio this year…
We, too, have rising government indebtedness as the Gulag state swells rapidly (though no exacerbating tax cuts from the Neuearbeitspartei, naturally), saddling us with a budget deficit (on balance sheet, at least) of c.GBP35 billion a year – a “Twin Deficit” no less exact than that in the US…..
To cap it all, we Brits, too, spend almost exactly this sum – GBP35 bio – as Auxilia on “Defence”, so one of our Twins also wears combat fatigues and carries a rifle, though an SA80, not an M-16 in our case!
Civis Romanus Sum
{ 2 comments }
Actually, the overall current account deficit in Britain is more like 2 to 2,5% of GDP. But you’re
right that is roughly equal to the military spending in Britain.
Sean
There seems to be a natural rhythm to such cycles. The duration of the cycle varies , of course. In Roman times, the cycle took one thousand years. In modern nations and in modern economic cycles, the duration is shorter and can be appreciate within one lifetime.
What happens is that the “eco-system” (econominc system) accumulates deadwood, just like an over mature forest. Very little in that eco-system (and the forest) is actually live and growing. Most or all of the rest of the system parasites off the very few growing portions.
Nature has an answer for over mature forests – a forest fire. The very existence of the deadwood provides its fuel.
Over mature eco-systems have their own version of renewing conflagrations, from depressions to world wars. Economic deadwood provids the fuel. The more of it, the hotter the flame.
Our preoccupation must pass from any collective (outside of one’s family) to indivduals. Herds stay in place and die.
Only individuals have the wit to do the one thing that can be done when any conflagration (natural or man made) hits….
Be Somewhere Else.
After the storm has passed, individuals, with their basis intact, return and renewed life depends on them.
Nothing to worry about at all, in fact, if you are an individual.
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