No one ever seems to point out the obvious. A country's economy is based on two things, raw resources and value added through manufacturing or services like Switzerland, er...."servicing" the financial industry. Most of the industrialized economy's in the west have offshored so much of their manufacturing to the far east they have now lost a significant portion of the wealth generating capability. Cheaper manufacturing means cheaper goods which seems like a boon until you burn through the residual money you had and then realize you can't afford even the cheaper goods. I was listening to the radio tonight and someone was saying, "What they have to do is give people jobs." Seems like a pretty oblivious statement. You don't just give people jobs unless you have the demand for what they will produce.
With governments propping up social systems and giving money away this is a golden opportunity to rebuild infrastructure. If a large percentage of your population is on the dole why are the roads and bridges falling apart? There's a large untapped work force that you're already paying. That is what was done in the 1920s to get the US out of the great depression. Unfortunately much of the current infrastructure still dates back to that time and it is failing at an alarming rate.
As Renton says in Train Spotting, "It's a ***** state of affairs Tommy and all the fresh air in the world isn't going to make a bit of difference."
As far as the whole wealth redistribution idea it is flawed. Money less of a thing and more of a concept. People who have a lot of it don't have it stuffed in a mattress. They invest it looking for a return. The key is getting them to invest it in your little part of the world. Tell them you are going to take it away from them and they'll just move it somewhere else.
