As stated above, social democracy has both drifted to the right in Europe and to the centre stage with Obama politics over the pond.
But it is in need og a major over haul to actually acheive anything against the war mongering, poverty broking oligarchs who stand against democracy on both sides of the Atlantic and over the former iron curtain.
Taxation is always the key. Or rather the trick in getting a strong economy which employs people and so further to this can create enough taxation to have a strong public sector which empowers people to be healthy, educated and proud of their country.
As an irony the thatcher years was that public spending ran wild and the GDP / Public Spend decline only really succeeded due to liberalisation of risk: on a personal level, credit cards and lax control of property loans while on the "markets" side in the "city" a pretty rightful easing of stuffy beaurocracy for the computer age. In fact you could argue that digital telephony did more for the UK economy than Thatcher -which is an oxymoron of sorts.
Thatcher raised more tax in real terms in the late 80s than any government before and this is another irony but lesson that social democratic politicians and followers should learn from - again .
Make Cuts in some types taxes and some types of beaurocracy and you get more NET money flowing in the private economy.
And this is one of the watersheds which we reach now; there is little left to effectively liberalise or cut which could actually stimulate the economy in this type of flow.
Romney doesnt reprsent just 53.6%, he represents even fewer Giving the rich families and corporates more money wont make the American economy that much stronger. It will just concentrate some more power in those who benefit most and can then buy the most politians for further tax cuts. It is a small elite who will benefit most versus the threats of Obama to actually take away their fleets of private jets and super yachts. The super rich are a wasteful bunch who also sit rather precariously on the property bubble which still exists in western lands. That bubble may get bigger as the small minority try to lock cash into bricks and mortar while it is only they who can affor it. The pension institutions may get priced out and get cold feet on property. Then again the super rich can pay them off and encourage criminality in the markets as happened in the sub prime fiasco. The super rich in effect have no plan beyond their next tax cut.
Romney will probably woo and buy over enough on the mid ground of semi taxed proffessionals in safte public money linked jobs (like the entire health sector in the USA, bed rocked by subsidious high costs paid by the state) He will promptly go to war with Iran though and the socialist public spend on weapons and personnel will be enormous for a while to be followed by more oil revenues.
Thatcher ran a bizarre socialist spending plan, perverted of course: for example into making education into a trotskyite continual revolution and the NHS into a megalythic management ivory tower with more non health delivery managers than there are beds. Also increasing the university educational budget, which I benefited from, while starving state schools of funds for materials to teach basic reading and writing. That and of course the great double-think of that era- instead of paying subsidies to industries or employing a higher head count in public service than maybe necessary, the thatcher goverment paid more and more in their first two terms to pay people to do nothing but wait until their dole ran out and they had to get a low paid job..,,.,.,.and get subsidies in terms of benefits and wages supports or "work fair" so that employers could make profit out of nothing very much of any value for anybody else.
Anyway, Thatcher's perversities aside: Social Democracy has had billions and billions of the rich's money bet against it, while in the up-times Corporates are actually rather in love with such governance. There is a hidden keynsism in the Clinton and Blair administrations. On all sides everyone thought this was a heck of a party so the public sector did nicely and the liberalised money markets, sorry the anarchy in the flow of money in loans to high risk candidates eventually bit us all in the arse.
Social democracy has to court corporates once more. Some see their top line being more erroded by lower public spending but hope for a stronger private lead epoch to arrive. Four years into the western recession and there are no signs of it, but there is a qeue of super conservatives ready to bet that cutting spending will mysteriously kick start the major economies. Cuts will start to balance the books against a forecasted growth in 2017 but that is just a fairy tale. The cuts will maybe end up being right sized for yesterdays economy while tommorrows economy will be smaller and generate less taxation again making the PSBR, balance of payments and other key indicators look even bleaker. Cameron and Romney do not have markets left to liberalise and have little left to privatise. Quite the reverse, they have some private services becoming socialistic non govermental charities while others run self destructive inflation cycles with ever more defaulters and less demand for their utilities and services due to higher costs and lower employment.
So back to this wooing of business: one thing Social Democats and Democratic Socialist must do is fall in love with corporates! They must stop penalising them with social-on-costs : job creation and training should be tax breaks! Head count per se should not have a social on cost (employers contributions) which renders them uncompetitive on price or reluctant to grow in numbers. They must stop taxing employers for employment and get a balance based on the will and ease of companies to grow. This a policy which must reach from the one man band who employs his wife because it is worth it, through the partnership who want an administrator, the successful plumber who moves his black market labour legit', and all the way up to the corporate division who want to right-skill and right-size for a new market opportunity.
There the last paragraph was my nano pico rant, the rest was just ranting.
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