Bridge Collapse: Is There A Wider Question?

The dreadful loss of life and the shear unexpected horror of the collapsing motorway in Genoa has made front pages the world over. Questions abound. Foremost, after the anguish for the dead and injured, are: How? Why?

The new Italian government is already beginning to place the blame on cuts in government expenditure forced upon Italy by the Eurozone, i.e. Germany. There may or may not be truth in this,  but more widely there is a very big problem, growing ever bigger. The economic model favouring low taxes, small government and a very large financial sector with low wealth creation and high asset inflation is unsuited to a modern state. Not just Italy, but many, if not most. Especially the UK.

Whatever may have been the ideal in the past, whatever economic theory is seen to be the purest and whatever ideology drives politicians and campaigners from the right, the plain fact is that the modern world is different. The notion, the driver of everything for nearly forty years, that you keep taxes low, cut spending to make that possible, favour the rich over the poor, lavish wealth upon the few, not the many, and make everybody else survive on the nebulous notion of opportunity for all, is way past its sell by date.

A government must inaugurate an economic model which creates new wealth at the base, built on giving priority to the mass of ordinary people upon whose shoulders the provision of all manifestations of civilised living depend.There must be proper jobs, paying enough to cover housing costs, living costs, leisure and enough for saving. Public investment in housing and infrastructure is an absolute must as part of that economic reboot to guarantee state of the art transport, communications, environment and competitive energy. And, most of all enough decent affordable housing. That will bring prosperity at all levels but will begin at the base and filter upwards, not the other way round.

But it is also necessary to run efficient public services right across the piece, whether it is health, education, the police or social care and the national fabric has to be maintained and renewed. That costs money. Taxes provide the cash. But the difference has got to be that first the cost is calculated and then the taxes are fixed at rates required to pay the bills.

At the moment taxes are reduced to gain votes and services are cut because the money runs out. Well, that is all going to come to an end. Prepare for a very different world. But a better one for the ordinary majority.