Euro Area

[Furunculus]

i agree with the prognosis, but not the cure.

promote growth.

[InsaneApache]

Evan Davies did a fascinating program on the BBC about how the UK exports changed in the last 30 years. From low end tech such as clothing to high end tech such as engineering.

We still do make clothes but not in the UK.

Interesting stuff.

http://www8.open.ac.uk/platform/news...ts-and-exports

[rory_20_uk]

We need low tech for the low tech member of society as there are not enough jobs cleaning the toilets of the high-tech offices.

Where and doing what?

[Adrian II]

We need low tech for the low tech member of society as there are not enough jobs cleaning the toilets of the high-tech offices.

Where and doing what?

Plumbing and construction (city infrastructure all over the west is derelict). Carpentry (i.e. making better furniture than IKEA's crap). Public transport (turning it into the success it should be instead of privatised failure). There are loads of useful employment possibilities of we decide that we want to be a society after all, not just a bunch of autonomous citizens.

Much of this will require more public investment and fewer bail-outs for banks. In fact, it will require a restructuring of the financial system. If that happens at all, it'll be years and years before we get there.

AII

[rory_20_uk]

I know the areas the UK is deficient in.

But in the UK, fame is around the corner, isn't it? Everyone is going to get rick quick by becoming a celebrity or someone famous. Trades appear to be sneered at in the UK - everyone needs a degree, right? Better to have a BA in Sociology than have the ability to build something. Scrap a lot of funding for the Universities (I'm sorry, but and have better links with Industry - especially smaller companies that focus on vocational roles.

Most of the possibilities require people to want to undertake these activities - possibly working for low wages until their skills improve and quite possibly accept that they will never be a squillionaire. Germany has a lot more respect for Engineers than the UK manages.

Most public transport was privately built and often worked quite well back then. After making it into a public enterprise and then dividing it in a nonsensical way managed the current English art of managing to make something that fails in both categories. One company owning all facilities in one area of the UK for example, rather than several which is nonsensical. Concerning the Underground, automating all the underground trains would be another aspect that should be addressed. In these days having trains that do not require drivers should be simple... Oh, we do on the Docklands - it is being delayed by the unions. What a shock. Considering the cost per driver per year is about £35,000 in salary, I am sure we are looking at a cost of over £40k each. Multiply that by the number of drivers and that is a vast sum that would be better invested.

Perhaps it needs saying again: the governments bought into the banking system at almost the bottom of the market. The bank profits remain depressed as they are paying billions to the government in insurance premiums. It was not a blank cheque of money that disappeared into salaries without any payback from the banks. If a vulture fund had done this there would be squeals of protest about the Evils of Capitalism.

[Adrian II]

Concerning the Underground, automating all the underground trains would be another aspect that should be addressed. In these days having trains that do not require drivers should be simple...

Not if you want to re-establish social control, respect for public property &cetera. People are sick of talking to machines already. Scrapping drivers, replacing ticket-sellers and ticket-controllers by machines, replacing surveillance by CCTV - that's exactly the sort of depersonalisation of public space that invites daily violations of order and the law. One of the reasons why public transport in the west is not taking off as it should is that we have turned it into a social wasteland. We have privatised it, we want the cheapest fares, and then we are surprised when carriages collide for lack of maintenance and train and subway stations become hoodlum territory.

AII

[rory_20_uk]

I specifically said drivers. You could have the money spent on more people on say £15k who just walk the stations and / or trains to give out help / advice and act on low level crime. A driver has almost no human contact as it is with anyone.

In the UK carriages have usually collided when the (human) driver missed a red light or a warning noise - the computer noted it, the human screwed up.

Privatised does not have to mean inhuman. If you've been to a private hospital they are often more pleasant environments. If state institutions there is often little thought as to the best make up of staff. In my example above, one could almost double the number of staff in the system by getting rid of obsolete expensive ones and getting in more useful cheaper ones.

I'm currently doing some work on reorganising hospitals. One glaring thing is often how the staff mix is not what is required - from poor allocation of cleaners of all staff paid to work until 7 yet theatre stops at 5 - and therefore no one works on a friday and the theatres are not used. Something as simple as getting them to finish at 5pm and work on the next day makes things massively more efficient. Yet it has taken years for this change to be implemented.