The Long-term Fallout

Tuesday 12th April

It is often not the immediate explosion which causes the most damage but the long-term fallout.  And we can never be sure at the time whether that fallout will land and coat everything with a new aspect or will dissipate and blow away with the morning mist.  But I do detect a distinct mood of change.  The revelations in the Panama papers will possibly pass most people by; the shenanigans of the Super-rich may provide a headline or two but then another Royal baby or terrorist atrocity will fill the attention span of most people.  But I believe we are beginning to see a generational shift.

Mrs. Thatcher changed so much in our country, and mostly for the worse, but mostly she changed people’s attitudes; getting rich was okay, greed was good, there was no such thing as society.  And most people bought into it; after the turbulent Seventies the Eighties was a time of increasing prosperity.  It may well have been brought about by huge increases in personal debt and relaxing of almost all financial controls, but as house prices soared and borrowing money was easy this seemed no problem.  Credit cards and store cards proliferated and it became so easy to buy things – we were liberated from our own common sense – that one day all of this would have to be paid for.

The financial crisis of 2008 may seem in the past but we are still living with the consequences of that credit disaster.  The solution most Governments came up with was simply to create even more credit, so fuelling the next housing bubble.  And the younger generation was cast adrift, those lucky enough to have wealthy parents would be all right after all, and they are now angry (and they have technology on their side – it is getting harder for the rich and corrupt to hide).

I think that things are changing, no longer will people tolerate massive tax avoidance and evasion (call it what you will) by both large Corporations and rich individuals and things will change.  It may take some time but the accumulated effects of Google and Amazon and rich individuals avoiding their rightful taxes will no longer be tolerated.  The fallout from this could be long-lasting.