The point isn't about who makes what but rather about the dominant ideology: Who makes the rules, and who benefits from them? Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
After all, we could call it the North American-European model....that would also be correct, but it papers over a more complex picture. The Anglo-Saxon model does the same. It is to general, and ignores more complex picture.
It also ignores how tied up the UK economy is with the rest of the EU. 2/3 of out trade is with the EU, large chunks of it are owned by other member states and vice versa. AND the same regulations on trade that apply to the UK apply also to EU other member states.
The 'masters of the universe' reveal on their own importance, the financial press jump in on it, and it seems as if EuroTrib has been sucked into it. Dont over play thier importnance, at least in the UK. To know your enemy, you have to identify it....and identify it correctly. I would go along the 'City-Wall Steet-FT axis of evil' ;)
I live in Sheffield, and the City maybe a couple hundred miles away but ideologically, its on another planet. It may hold sway over the economy in some ways, but in others, its ignored.
I for one welcome the finacnial meltdown. It will put paid to the myth of a service eonomy. UK manufacturing will benefit both from the decline in the value of the pound, and the fact that Europe.Is.Not.Doomed. We can sell you things, while the yuppies feast upon each other! Everyone ones.
But "Anglo Disease" is a special allusion to the The Economist-coined term "Dutch Disease", describing a national economy where one sector got too much weight (in that particular example, gas). The City-Wall Steet-FT-Economist axis of evil is also supported by most of the upper, political, and media classes of the respective countries, and government policy, in that sense we can speak of national economies. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
For a local example, consider Hammerson's redevelopment of a big chunk of Sheffield city centre under the name of 'Sevenstone'. It is huge new 'public-private' development in which the city council is effectively abjuring its responsibilities to a corporation. The ideology of the 'Anglo-Saxon' model is everywhere, tending opinion towards the idea that the market is always more beneficial and more munificent than the public sector ever could be. Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
The CoL/WS disease is naming the disease itself, but for this particular case, naming it the Anglo Disease is a superior label, since one persistent defense mechanism by The City and Wall Street will be to say, "yes, we are in deep shit, but those Europeans are cruising toward even deeper shit ... uh, any time now ... well, not right now, but soon ..." I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Actually, you could technically count a slave's food/clothing/housing provision as income, though it wouldn't come up to much.
PS I did find this, but my knowledge of economics isn't enough to appreciate if it is really what I meant. Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
Seriously. At least in certain circumstances, a slave is an investment that must be maintained, rather than someone that can simply be sacked and forgotten about. This is interestingly brought out in a passage I saw quoted in G.E.M de St. Croix's 'The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World', referring to the institution of slavery in the US. In this passage, a traveller noted that in a ship being loaded, the black slaves were all throwing the objects into the hold, and the white Irish were at the bottom, catching the stuff and moving it about. On enquiry, he was told: 'No one cares if the Paddies get their backs broken' - because they were hired by the day, and no loss resulted if they were injured permanently. It was different for the black slaves, item of property, chattels ... who, ironically, and unbelievably from our point of view, were better off than the paid labour ...
