Only Producers or Predators?

Ed Miliband seems to have captured in a sound bite a hugely popular distinction. Manufacturing is good, trading in empty ETFs and derivatives is bad.

Extractive industries are good, casino banks are bad. The trade unions love it, and Will Hutton has endorsed it.

The trouble is life isn’t so simple.

Some global manufacturing practices are certainly not good – unless our moral compass now accommodates sweat shops.

Similarly some companies in the extractive industry are guilty of horribly exploitative employment practices and a cavalier attitude towards the environment.

The earnings of some captains of manufacturing and extractive industries are certainly not “progressive” in economic terms.

But more importantly most of us in the UK aren’t really producers or predators at all, in economic terms we’re simply passengers.

Whether we work in the law, accountancy, consultancy, civil service or hairdressing, we do little to add real wealth to the nation’s coffers. Neither do most of us take home obscene bonuses.

We merely help to achieve a modest redistribution of wealth. We ride the pillion of the economy.

Pathetic really. What did you do in the Global Financial Crisis, Daddy?