Tuesday 19 February 2008

nationalised rock

Have you ever thought about the idea that on everything you buy your paying a tax to the rich? all the margin between the costs of the production and the profit to the rich shareholders making up the very highest percentiles of the population. The fact is that company's are generally not run by thier "owners" but by managers appointed by thier owners with very high sailories.

The Marxist notion of turning over the ownership of the means of production from the capitalists to the workers is turned on its head, who is more the capitalist, the worker who ownes shares in the company or the chief executive who ownes no shares but works for the company in that managerial role? The government can own shares in different competing companies while not stifling this competition. This need not stifle competition if the government simply gives the mission all private companies have of making as much profit as possible possibly with other indecies of success such as low carbon footprint or low prices.

What if the government could genuinly keep companies "at arms length," as the British government did yesterday in announcing the nationalisation of Northern Rock. Let people who know how to run companies at the going rate do it in thier own way for the public benifit without central mismanagment and run by people of expertise and talent ran the company with the bulk of the profit going to the government to fund health, education and regeneration bearing the fruits of a performing economy rather than creating disincentives to work

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