Eoghan Harris warns that simplistic solutions to our problems could lead to anarchy (Sunday Independent).
Before I go further I can hear you say: who cares? The answer is all who abhor anarchy. Without a coalition of centrist parties we are at the mercy of political mobs — including media mobs — shouting simplistic slogans and peddling stupid socialist solutions.
He then proceeds to offer a ‘sophisticated’ analysis of one aspect of the situation.
Socialism in Ireland is called benchmarking. And no matter how it’s disguised it means taking money from the majority productive private sector class (which is at the mercy of market forces) and spending it on a minority public sector class (which is protected from market forces) and which enjoys permanent and pensionable employment.
Eoghan Harris presents a pretty poor excuse for analysis of political economy.
“productive private sector” assumes that the private sector is productive and of course he presumes that the public sector is not. This is at pretty extreme odds with reality.
For instance, the fact that the bus system provides a productive service that is a real public good, while the banks provide something which is arguably a disservice to the public. In addition it is hardly the case that they private sector has not been protected from market forces. In fact, it’s almost the opposite. The bus system is forced to run with very little subsidy, while the subsidy of the banks is astronomical. Almost the entire public sector crisis is directly a result of private companies being subsidised by public funds, and has almost nothing to do with the public service.