I thought I was going to hate this — What do the opponents of capitalism make of the global financial crisis?, in today’s Guardian — and there’s a lot of it that’s sub-student-union posturing pointlessness (step forward Green MEP Caroline Lucas, SWP hack Chris Harman and Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition, to name the three most jejune thinkers quoted).
But there are many interesting points raised, nonetheless. And the quote I’ve picked out above — from Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob — chimes with something I’ve been saying recently: if you choose to operate (as pretty much all of us in the UK do, to a greater or lesser extent) as a tiny little cog in a much bigger capitalist machine, you can’t suddenly get all pissy when the machine goes wrong.
During the good times, did I hear anyone say: “But this is terrible! My house is suddenly worth three times what I paid for it! I must redistribute some of this cash. Triple my taxes!” Why, no. So when the belt needs tightened, isn’t it a bit cheeky to turn to the government and say: “I demand you fix this right away?”
