Thursday, April 23, 2009

Scrappage is garbage


This was supposed to be a white collar recession in which the middle classes in the financial sector would be feeling the pain first. Hasn't happened. The biggest increases in people claiming jobseekers allowance have been in old industrial areas like Glasgow, where the number of people unemployed and claiming benefit has increased by nearly a third in the past year. There, the unemployment rate is now 5.2%; whereas in Edinburgh, home of stricken RBS and HBOS, only 2.8% are without work. There really is no justice in this recession. The non-financial areas of Britain didn't cause the crisis, but are suffering disproportionately from the results. 



You might have thought this would make the government think of subsidising jobs for a change instead of banks, but no chance. The Treasury has ruled out subsidising short time work or giving help to companies to retain skilled workers. There's nothing left in the kitty for job creation, we're told. Except in the most bizarre form, which is the proposal to pay people to scrap perfectly usable cars. The government is apparently planning to pay £2,000 to owners of vehicles over nine years of age if they buy a new one



The propose 'scrappage' scheme has been widely criticised by economists – the Financial Times said it was like paying people to break windows in order to keep glaziers employed. It is supposed to boost the UK car industry, but the vast majority of new cars sold in Britain are imported, so most of the money will go abroad. It is supposed to help the environment, but most of the pollution created in a a vehicle's lifetime happens during its production, so scrapping serviceable cars will only contribute to environmental degradation. People who can't afford new cars will be unable to take advantage of the scheme, which is wide open to fraud and profit taking by car dealers. 



The scrappage scheme – like the bank rescues – shows that the government really has no coherent philosophy of how to deal with the economic crisis in the real world, as opposed to the fantasy world of finance. Ministers spend most of their time with bankers and the lobbyists from special interest groups like the car dealers, which makes them acutely vulnerable to expensive schemes which benefit the few at the expense of the many. The Chancellor should be investing in job-creating public works, like house building and renewable energy. And he should be addressing income inequality to boost consumer demand.

3 comments:

brownlie said...

Iain,

I may be wrong but my understanding is that the government will pay up to £1000 and the car dealer will make it up to £2000.

As far as investing in banks rather than jobs is concerned, would it be too cynical to assume that members of the Cabinet, and especially the PM and Chancellor, will enjoy lucrative directorships in such organisations, when the inevitable happens, but they would hardly be likely to want to work in Job Centres. Otherwise, it would be a tremendous waste of their financial acumen.

Anonymous said...

Always read you and Ian Bell in the Herald, online now as you two were the only things worth reading in the end. Didn't know you had a blog though as I only found out when someone highlighted it on the Scotsman comments yesterday or the day before.

You and Ian Bell always talk with a great deal of common sense, you two should be in politics. I agree with your comments regarding the scrappage scheme, surely the fact that people are driving older cars is mainly because they can't afford a new one, or are quite happy with an older one as it is a lot cheaper to buy and keep.

Re Brownlie above - surely the banks will have had their fingers burnt now by employing numpties that have brought them to their knees that they will only employ people that are qualified for the job from now on.

I don't know if you have seen them Iain, but I have some interesting video links on 911 and 7/7 on my blog at www.paisleyexpressions.blogspot.com

Billy

Dark Lochnagar said...

Iain,
They're like a dying elephant on it's own, starving and out in the bush in some dusty hellhole, thrashing around in it's last hellish, macabre dance of death.

Go now, you're like someone at a graveyard funeral who has just farted!