Dear Sir,
I was intrigued to read Steve Gandy’s article, ‘A fatal flaw in our democracy’, which appeared in the July EN, on page 18.
Shrink-the-state enthusiasts dream of self-sufficient citizens taking full responsibility for their whole lives: housing, insurance, education, health care, child care and retirement. I guess this would require a household income of about £60,000 a year, maybe more. (See if you can guess better.) Typical adult male income is around £20-25,000, and has been stuck there in real terms since the 1970s. Unskilled labour can be nearer £10,000.
State-shrinkers are often the same people who would like to cut or abolish the minimum wage. In Britain they usually allow that there would have to be a safety net for the unfortunate. In practice it would have to catch about 90% of the population; in other words, just like the welfare state we already have, or there would be a complete collapse of society.
To make pure Free-Market Capitalism work properly, you would need a massive redistribution of incomes, in effect a Marxist revolution. Back to the drawing board ...
Regards,
