Economic Dracula - sucking the life out of us.

I've long had a problem with THE ECONOMY. The thing that rules our lives - if our so-called leaders are to be believed. Frankly, the way these people have the world organised, it actually does rule our lives. But, a question I keep asking is: Why is the economy held up as a thing? A living, breathing, feeling entity within which we sit and in fact, are held and cared for by and, why do we do everything in our power, including die, to preserve it and its constant growth?

I get that there has long been trading and bartering. A form of exchange has been part of our societies for as long as we have interacted with each other as tribes and communities. But, the recent incarnation of economy, since the 70's and 80's, has seen this (I don't really know what to keep calling it so I'll go with framework) catapulted to a sole, pre-eminent spot in our societies. It now occupies a front seat. a throne if you will. And we all, everyone of us living, breathing, feeling beings, is subservient to it. A bit like a dark overlord. Dracula - the worst version of. It actually does suck the life out of us.

This is all based on GDP. Gross Domestic Product. We all think we know what this is. It's a number, a largely false number, that rules us. It drives decisions, destruction and, financial prosperity for just a few of us. It started, I understand, as a war tool in WW2. A way to keep the war machine working whilst stimulating spending domestically - which is the key to economic growth, and an indefatigable increase in the piles of money available to count. Once it had been shown to work - firstly in the U.S., it was adopted and refined almost everywhere. It has become the most powerful number in the world - do check out the fab book by Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti “Gross Domestic Problem” for an initial dive in. It is now synonymous with power. Money equals power and control. Just look at who the richest nations are and how they run about the playground of the world bullying everyone else until they get what they want. Right now, a certain Mr Trump, the extremely distasteful president of the nation most in thrall to GDP (With the EU/UK very closely behind) is throwing trade tariffs around like frisbees. Seeing who will catch one and what size it will be when it comes back. The returning frisbee is supposed to be loaded with cash that transfers more power to the nation that threw it. A bionic frisbee of global control. Don't we all want one of those? BUT, what does GDP and the obsessive, single-minded focus on it and economic growth actually do for us? 

GDP misses a lot of things. For a start, it is based on domestic product so, an american company (for example), with a production facility in the UK, has the financial product of the facility included in UK GDP. But, the profits of this arrangement flow mostly back to the U.S. A financial drain. We supply manpower, they take the pocket money like the school dinner queue bully. And, it's a falsehood because that company is american, not british. Also, GDP doesn't account for illegal money. We've all heard about the amount of drugs money in the world, how much the trade is worth. According to Global Financial Integrity, drug trafficking could be worth up to $650bn a year, second only to counterfeiting. That's about 0.5% of total global GDP. That doesn't sound like much but, it was fear of those sorts of losses that led the U.S. and UK to dive into Iraq to prevent a global financial meltdown after the 911 attacks. And, the thing is, that GDP doesn't take this money into account (and that's just one stream of illegal money there are many others) yet, this money is always spent in the financial framework around us. Criminals need food, houses, cars, they take holidays etc etc, all of which count as part of the GDP because they spend their money in our financial framework. It also crucially does not take account of the unpaid economy. The stay at home mum's caring for children, unpaid carers looking after friends and family and so on. GDP is a measure of market transactions, things that cannot be easily (for economists anyway) counted, are discounted from it giving a huge disparity in the overall figure. This apparently equates to about $11tn. About 9% of global GDP and, it is also mostly women contributing to this number. So, GDP has its issues. Sizeable ones. Yet it is still held as a beacon of progress, of development.

Who, though, benefits from it. Well, I'm sure we all look around and see the stats like the number of new billionaires in 2024 - 268 - with the total number now being 2781 - according to Forbes. Oxfam has this number slightly lower but, the point is, that many of us don't see pay rises that often, the costs of living keep going only one way and so the flows of our money, are benefitting only one group. All thanks to our wonderful economy. A framework that we should all work so hard to sustain and develop because it benefits us so very much. And, Oxfam also says that whilst these people and their obscene fortunes grow, overall poverty has barely changed since 1990. In the UK, many would agree it has got worse. With an almost exponential growth in FoodBanks and more than 1 in 5 in the UK, apparently the 5th richest nation on earth, living in poverty. So, who is our economy, our economic framework, working for? We have to work for it, yet what do we get back? With crumbling infrastructure, virtually no new investment in society except a white elephant, financial car crash, “look aren't we wonderful and technologically advanced” HS2 project that attempts to blind people to the real problems, we get nothing. Schools struggle to provide pens and equipment for children. Roads and transport systems are on their knees, local authorities are starved of cash for improvements, water companies pay bonuses and dividends whilst destroying biodiversity and our fresh water lifeline and then there are subsidies for fossil fuel companies and extreme levels of profits for them too. All whilst there is no money for us. For the things we need. For our children. To redesign our societies and our farming to make them fit for the future and to continue our amazing NHS health service. There's no money to end homelessness or to provide adequate mental health support services at a time when, unsurprisingly, the mental health of many, whilst under such societal stress, is suffering. An article in the BBC news today says that as we approach a return to a new school year and parents attempt to secure new school uniforms, many are unable to afford them and grants should be offered. Grants? How about we just restructure the framework so that we can all afford these basics? Easily. Rather than just some of us. There really is a them and us and this gap, this indicator of inequality that actually used to form part of a measure of a third world country, is growing and becoming so widespread in so-called developed countries that it really does make a mockery of the economy, what is stands for, what it is said (frankly via internal, national propaganda) to achieve for us and who it benefits. The only people it benefits are the super rich and the wealthy nations who have long used financial might to purchase military might and cement their power, over all others. All others. Take a look back to the days of the Armarda's and the Pomp of the 17th Century Royal Navy for a history lesson.

I don't know what the answer is, but what it isn't, is business as usual. That tradition, of economic frameworks and one way flows of income, has got to stop. We need a revolution. Maybe one of force. Preferably not. Preferably, it would be one of awakening. Of culture shift. Of realisation and a belief that we, the people, who really do have the power, that has been taken from us and stirred into a pot of division, racism, inequality and polarisation, can take that power back and change this. For all our sakes. But, for this, we need education. We, collectively need, I fear, a tipping point. Hopefully, and rather fearfully, this isn't far away.

More next time.........................