So the currency markets are in turmoil. So what? The currency markets are invariably in one kind of turmoil or another. Turmoil, uncertainty, instability, imbalance, inequity and insecurity are all inherent features of the global capitalist system. It has ever been thus. If all political action was postponed until the markets a stability that we might be confident could last out the week then nothing would ever get done. Nothing would ever change. I am 63 years old. I have never known a time when we werent in the midst of an economic crisis, on the verge of an economic crisis, or in the process of making a shaky recovery from an economic crisis. Crisis is the very engine of economies dominated by the prevalent neo-liberal ideology. The system is critically dependent on the kind of fragility that means it has to be constantly patched up and propped up for the benefit of the economically powerful with resources taken from the economically powerless. As Woody says to Buzz Lightyear in the animated movie Toy Story, Thats not flying! Its falling with style! Economic turmoil is a constant. Every country in the world has to deal with it. Most cope reasonably well most of the time. What Peter Jones fails to explain is why Scotland must be the exception. Why is Scotland assumed to be inherently incapable of dealing with the day-to-day business of managing its economy? Or is it that he supposes Scotland will be particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of the markets? If so, what is the nature of this vulnerability? It surely couldnt be that Mr Jones is claiming we are better off having our economy run by the likes of Brown, Darling and Osborne.What possible reason is there to put our trust in proven incompetents and austerity fetishists? And what quaint notion is this that Mr Jones entertains? The oddball idea that debt servicing might somehow be related to ability to pay so that those who are more able pay more than those who are less able. When was the last time Peter Jones took a look at the real world. What happens in reality is that those with the most pay the least while those with little are penalised. Its all contrived nonsense, of course. Scotlands economic prospects as an independent country are, at worst, no less uncertain than they are as part of the UK. But with independence we at least have the economy being run by politicians who are answerable to the people of Scotland. So, on balance, independence has to be better. If the economic implications of a Yes and a No vote are equally gloomy or unknowable then there is nothing on which to base a rational choice between the two. Which means that we are bound to make the decision on principle rather than masses of economic data that is ultimately meaningless. We always come back to the point that independence is normal. It is the default status of all nations. And there is absolutely no reason why Scotland should be different.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 11:30:54 +0000
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