1 day ago
14
Robert Reich’s account of how the holy writ of corporate profit has bought about the near disintegration of US society will be familiar to students of UK political history (Americans are waking up. A grand reckoning awaits us, 29 January).
I grew up with the capitalism of Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath, in a society where the NHS worked, our industry and transport remained a vibrant reflection of British pride and ingenuity, the population were housed, and rents and mortgages were within the reach of ordinary wage earners.
Reich notes that the rot in the US began with Ronald Reagan, while in our case, Margaret Thatcher’s juggernaut of deregulation, the assault on union membership and the replacement of our industrial base with an economy trumpeting shopping, house prices and the stock market has resulted in a brutally unequal society where food banks, shoddy high streets and zero-hours contracts have become the norm.
Reich believes that Trump’s acceleration of the US nightmare is being confronted by protest. We also need, as a society, to force the pace of change. The odd nudge towards Whitehall will not cut the mustard.
Tony Rowlands
Bristol
Robert Reich has been a consistent and brave critic and possibly the most reliable of commentators on how freedoms are being eroded by the Trump government. I read his article without surprise, but I found this paragraph chilling:
“But over the last 40 years, starting with Ronald Reagan, the US has gone off the rails: deregulation, privatisation, free trade, wild gambling by Wall Street, union-busting, monopolisation, record levels of inequality, stagnant wages for most, staggering wealth for a few, big money taking over politics. Corporate profits became more important than good jobs and good wages for all; stock buy-backs and the wellbeing of investors more important than the common good.”
If you substitute Margaret Thatcher for Ronald Reagan and the City of London for Wall Street, it summarises precisely what has happened here. Even worse, many of our key services and resources are now owned and managed by overseas organisations that have no interest in UK wellbeing and stability if it gets in the way of profit. The NHS federated data platform, supplied by the US data analytics company Palantir despite doctors’ and MPs’ concerns and public resistance, exemplifies how our current government, far from waking up to the inherent dangers posed by neoliberal economics as Robert Reich advocates, is persisting with them.
Kate Purcell
Coventry
