On Wed, 26 Sep 2018 14:33:01 +0200
abelard wrote:



define 'prosperous'

does it mean gdp?

You know my opinion of GDP.

or some sort of quality of life measure/s?


Yes, but that's different for everyone. We might try for some common
ground.

Datum: a nation with roads and other infrastructure as poorly
maintained as ours cannot claim to be prosperous. I was cycling in and
around London fifty years ago, and there were *no* *potholes*. A
cyclist pays a bit more attention to the state of the road than do
motorists.

Datum: a nation which cannot maintain the widespread police patrols,
the number of A&E departments, the response times to varying degrees
of health emergency that were routine in the 1950s cannot claim
to be prosperous.

Datum: a nation which cannot achieve the child literacy and numeracy
which were routine in the 1950s ...etc.

Everyone will have a list of these things. While some *people* are
exceedingly prosperous today, the country as a whole isn't, and as the
daft cat says, none of the politicians are offering to improve things.
Oh, they all talk, but the only prosperity they are really interested in
is their own. From the site (one of thousands) from which by chance I
lifted my earlier Heinlein quotation:

"Today, we have a state that teaches people €” through its policies and
its words €” to despise the minority who keep moving the human race
forward. We have politicians who arent qualified to run hotdog stands
making decisions about re-engineering our economy and continuing to
subvert the economy. (The problems are on both sides of the
mainstream.) All the time, they tell us its not their fault. They tell
us that if they werent engaging in their financial madness, things
would be even worse. They want us to believe that our troubles are all
bad luck, not their fault.

The state is the place to lay the blame. Its time for the creative and
productive minority to set itself free from the chains of the state €”
and refuse to serve those who claim to be its masters."

Written in the US in 2011 by David McElroy, but timeless, and certainly
applicable over here.

--
Joe