The United States has a huge national debt, and the UK is not far behind. If either country was a business they’d have been declared bankrupt years ago.
Too big to fail?
I suppose the reason countries, especially big and powerful ones like ours, is that they are considered too big to fail, or more accurately, too big to be allowed to fail. Sound familiar? Wasn’t that what they said about the banks in 2008?
But great civilisations have disappeared before, and not just from war, disease, and disaster. The downfall of the Roman Empire in the west had more than a little to do with the collapse of its economy; the same can be said for the French monarchy of the late 18th century.
Efficiency Tsar
With the US’s total combined output expected to be $28.82 trillion in 2024, compared to a national debt of $35.46 trillion, that’s a debt to GDP ratio of 123%. It’s no wonder President-elect Trump has given the visionary businessman, Elon Musk, the new cabinet post of ‘Efficiency Tsar’, putting him in charge slashing the cost of running the United States.
In the UK things aren’t much better, with our national debt going through the 100% of GDP mark in September, and predictions for the next five years showing little optimism that the ratio will drop much below 98%.
Outdated ideas and no experience
So what’s the difference between them and the UK? For starters they will soon have a couple of billionaires in charge of the nation’s purse strings, compared to an entire government who haven’t run so much as a corner shop.
And as a result of UK Labour’s financial illiteracy and worship of outdated socialist ideas that amount to trying to make the ‘black hole’ in the UK’s accounts disappear by digging an even deeper pit.
Money-gobbling monster
So while Trump and Musk recognise that the United States Government has become an enormous out of control money-gobbling monster in urgent need of a diet plan, Labour’s answer is to keep feeding our debt-demon with cash from higher taxes and increased borrowing.
The United Kingdom desperately needs an Efficiency Tsar with real-world business experience.
In the long run we are all dead
Sadly this current Labour Government will not abandon its socialist dogma that cares little for the future because, a philosophy summed up by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ great hero, the economist, John Maynard Keynes, who once famously said ‘In the long run we are all dead’.
But at least if the UK did appoint an Efficiency Tsar it might mean less money getting wasted, and the country might be in a less bad state, when a sane Reform-Tory alliance arrives on a landslide in 2029 or before.