From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Wed Dec 02 1998 - 06:17:17 MST
On Tue, Dec 01, 1998 at 03:53:21PM +0100, den Otter wrote:
> > So why is it that despite more and more and more monitoring, the quality of
> > life in Britain is deteriorating rapidly?
>
> Because you have screwed up economically?
Actually, we haven't.
The high-tech sector of the UK economy (computers, software, electronics,
pharmaceuticals) amounts to about 5% of it. Overall economic growth rate
is about 2-3%. However, the high-tech sector is growning at a steady 26%,
and has been doing so since 1996. I get this at first hand; my income
(as a high-tech sector worker) has quadrupled in the past six years, and
the future's so bright I have to wear shades.
The reason the economy overall is only growing at 2-3% is because we
have a lot of rust-belt smoke-stack baggage left over from the last
but one industrial revolution. Whole sectors are dying off at 10-15%
per annum. The farming industry, only viable because of subsidies (which
in turn are paid automatically because of memories of World War Two and
near-famine), is losing billions.
However, if we extrapolate a bit, the die-back can only go so
far. Eventually there'll be nothing left to cut. And then we should
see growth levels in the UK that rival those we got used to seeing in
the far east in the early 90's.
Unfortunately our politicians seem to want to turn us into a mega-sized
copy of Singapore -- but that's another matter. Me, I'm voting for
independence within the EU.
-- Charlie (in Scotland, at the east end of Silicon Glen)
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