Is wealth inequality destroying town and villages by forcing workers into city slums?

Purple said:
And yet Germany and Northern Italy are still massive industrial powerhouses and America's industrial output is higher than ever and boomed in the 50's and 60's.
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Because they were innovative, not despite their unionisation. I don't think the unionisation *caused* the collapse of British industry, it was part of the backlash to its demise. But there was certainly a radicalisation esp in the motor union sector in the mid 1970s that exacerbated the issue, but by then the UK car making industry was already in severe decline, and motorbike industry was already gone.
Britain's issue RE innovation was also hit hard by the oil crisis - Honda and French/Italian carmakers were already making smaller engine cars that were efficient and used less petrol, in comparison to the British car makers who had barely innovated in years.
Also some good points here about the long term effects of state mandated forced mergers in the sector in the late 1960s that damaged the companies at the heart of the UK sector. Nationalisation did not save the industry either.
 
German unions sit on the board of their companies, and the decision making process involves their input.
The car industry is still quite robust , with over a millions units per year, manufactured in the UK.
Most of the factories are Japanese owned, and managed, but still with strong British trade union representation.
So, maybe it was the British managers that were rubbish, not the representatives of the ordinary workers.
 
German Unions are aa whole different animal to the Unions that were involved in the English car industry in the 50's and 60's. It's fair to say that modern English Unions are a whole different animal to their 50's and 60's counterparts, though not as intelligent or holistic as their German counterparts who are generally less ideologically driven and are interested in maintaining the medium to long term competitiveness and viability of the businesses in which they operate.
While the factories that are still there are unionised they were highly automated with LEAN practices from the start.
Whether or which they won't be there in a few decades as few companies are going to invest in making cars on an island off the European mainland which is not in the EU.
 
mathepac said:
The British can't make steel and never could. This fact alone was enough to kill off their car industry, having produced rot-boxes for decades.
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Ah. come off it......the quality of steel doesnt prevent rust, unless its stainless.
 
Before we celebrate, I read 50% of corporation tax & VAT comes from the US MNC sector. Hopefully Trumps election and our determination to kill the golden goose by charging obscene house and rental charges does not lead us back to obvilium.
 
T McGibney said:
Only 50%? I'd have my doubts about that.

What do you propose? Owners should sell or rent to the lowest bidder?
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No, we should be careful, not to kill the golden goose and price ourselves out of business.

Use our brains and be smarter about building housing much faster and efficiently.

The standard of public admin is poor . With a 1/2 million more, you can predict a housing shortage.
 
clinteastwood said:
No, we should be careful, not to kill the golden goose and price ourselves out of business.
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High wages, lack of labour supply and very slow planning are also big issues.
clinteastwood said:
Use our brains and be smarter about building housing much faster and efficiently.
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We built twice as many homes per capita as the UK last year.
We were the fourth highest in 2022, after Poland and France and just slightly behind Denmark. Given our very obvious geographic disadvantages that's remarkably good.
clinteastwood said:
The standard of public admin is poor . With a 1/2 million more, you can predict a housing shortage.
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Yes, the State Sector is very badly structured and run.
 
Agreed, but the rate of population increase is higher in Irl than these other countries.

The high labour costs are being driven by the out-of-line rent & housing costs.
 
clinteastwood said:
Agreed, but the rate of population increase is higher in Irl than these other countries.

The high labour costs are being driven by the out-of-line rent & housing costs.
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The high labour rate is being driven by high rental and housing costs which are in turn being driven by what are still low interest rates and a booming economy which is growing faster than our housing supply.
 
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