Two news stories converged to get me thinking yesterday. First the confirmation of the entry requirements post-brexit that will be required for any prospective new migrants to the UK, and the requirement to secure a job of minimum salary of £25,600 (for full points). Secondly, the number of deaths from Covid-19 in care homes, and an interviewing underlining how strategies weren’t co-ordinated due to the diffuse nature of care home ownership. Both these stories spoke to me about how a certain type of Economic thinking that has been all-conquering over a number of decades had led to so many off-base assumptions in our society. As value is determined purely by profitability than by actual societal value.
The minimum salary pretty much says to a vast majority of workers in the UK, myself included, that you are of no value. Which is nonsense as the huge pay differential between the top and the rest of us, skews the national average salary which would’ve been used as a base for this policy.
The care homes speak for how the over may years, the main concern for how to organise anything at government level is pure cost. Its a way of thinking that seems counter-intuitive – surely you look at need and then look at how to fund that, not look at a problem and how we can solve it and still make profit. So much of this thinking has led to outsourcing to private sectors, who of course are going to look to make a profit to continue operating, and justify existing. Problem is market-led decisions tend to lead to low wages, and low quality, to keep costs low, to maximise profit.
This is how you end up with nothing working and a load of competing entities leading to a red tape, inefficiency and no-one getting the services they should.
I can only hope eventually a change in the way of thinking comes through, otherwise we will continue to have a country that doesn’t work – regardless of how many perceived outside influencers you rid yourselves of.
