I Know What Reagan Would Have Done

British Workers Rekindle Spirit of 1926

I can think of nothing more selfish and self-indulgent than the acts of turpitude committed by council workers in striking over their future pension provision - this to say nothing of that fact that the strikes inevitably adversely impress upon the most disadvantaged in society. When will these recalcitrant limpets learn?

What right have these "key-workers" to retire at 60 and expect someone else to pay for it? Spare a thought for the private sector worker who will have to work like a Japanese prisoner of war until they are 70 to pay for that luxury. And for what? To spend 1/4th (or 1/12th if you live in Scotland) of their life slumped in a sofa with a doltish countenance on their face. I can think of nothing more self-conceited. It just so happens that the real - and growing - division in society is public vs private sector workers.

I have been pejoratively referred to as a rational misanthropist, but this act of fratricide is surely that accusation manifest in all its glory. The European Social Model must be the most self-serving institution in history, insouciant to all those who do not share their supercilious ideals. Far from supporting the weak and deserving, it has actively encouraged a client state for the proletariat; embodying the egregious present, whilst contemptuous of the past and oblivious to the realities of the future.

There is a delusional belief that the future of society is not their problem; they have earned the right to retire at 60 and someone else will have to pay for it - even if it means confining their own children to indigence. Well, if nobody is going to be around when they are eligible for their pension, who exactly is going to finance it? With birth rates plummeting, and the only uxorious males doing their bit being Muslim men, I can't imagine anyone who would want to to work in the legitimate job market. When the tax rates inevitably reach such exponential proportions - because of the decline in the national tax base and an increase in welfare obligations - there just won't be any incentive to live in Britain anymore: unless you have a gold-plated pension or have paid for a peerage. Not even the incentive of knowing that someone has to support your parents' pleasure and profligacy will stop you from emigrating. I am all for atomism, but not when it is some hideous mutation that harms everyone except yourself.

There are no extenuating circumstances for this kind of behaviour. If further strikes are scurrilously threatened, the immediate response must be to threaten to liberalise the market and allow the private sector to compete on equal terms. It would result in no more half-day public-sector working practices - the end to inefficient producer driven institutions - as well as having the added benefit of driving up productivity and lowering prices for the consumer. And if the public sector workers do not find that an amiable situation, perhaps they had better take a look across towards Continental Europe. Hopefully, they might then have a cathartic experience and consider themselves fortuitous enough that they actually have jobs - for the moment.

Finally, I wouldn't bet your pension on there being a Thatcher or Reagan to resolve this protracted impasse either; my money is on government capitulation, again.