Spending our way out will not work. Targeted tax cuts would help but they must be properly funded. Future generations must not be burdened, writes George Osborne
Future generations of rich people he means...... I'm sure I saw a report the other week that the generation of people who are proving the most consistently out-of-the-workforce are those who lost their jobs permanently in the last recession.
That's quite a powerful thought - that recessions mark their scar on our economy by marking those communities and individuals caught up in it permanently.
I'm no fool - I know there will be downturns as surely as there will be upturns, but any evidence that people are deterministically marked by their experience surely runs counter to our radical idealism that everyone needs an opportunity to fulfil their potential.
If that is so - then HOW we deal with a recession is not as simple as cutting taxes so that rich people can get back on with the job of making money - instead it becomes a complex task of supporting individuals, investing in communities and education and steaming ahead with plans for infrastructure which will see us ready to work again at the earliest opportunity.
SH
