Big Business

There is an association between big business and government that is both lazy and self-serving. It is lazy because, when a Minister wants to find out about an industry sector, he asks the big players who strangely seem to think government policy should be framed around their needs. The small guy not only doesn't get a chance to have a say but also is a likely target of the big guys. It is self-serving because these grateful companies then assist the politicians in word and deed. The most extreme example of this of course, is the banks. If there were two things banks were known for before the Crash it was the appallingly low level of 'customer service' and the size of their profits. Now of course we can add incompetence. They could survive, indeed do well despite the negative aspects because of the friendliness of the inhabitants of the big house, with the big clock down the road. I think in some ways we are seeing a rerun of an agricultural revolution, but in other industries though just as devastating. Enclosure was the result of technical changes to the way farming worked in Britain. It meant fewer very large farms at the expense of the little farmer. Everything was geared for scale and a few people grew exceedingly rich. Compare this with the tactics employed by say, Tesco today. They 'enclose' everything in a giant store and drive the small businesses out. Similarly, energy and utility companies take large profits (and offer poor service) because their product is 'enclosed' with near monopoly. Naturally the government is complicit in this anti-consumer activity. These very large companies seek to distort the market and use government influence to achieve it. Banks famously distorted the market, by making themselves so important that we couldn't allow them to fail. The EU is an even worse offender for asking big business how they would like things arranged. Not that they would be so crass as to couch it in such terms. And, to ensure no conviction politician rises up and carries a flaming torch on behalf of the people, political parties have enclosed their MP's, so that they are neutered and act collectively. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is probably just a train coming the other way. We need to get out of this damned tunnel!