Rob_Ilir Posted April 17, 2013 Posted April 17, 2013 ....Rebuilt Germany after WWI... came to mind.It is just a continuation of policies from the French revolution, and still continuing to be pushed into 3rd world country's as a stick, for a few worthless carrots. As for the full employment, I thought only the Vatican had that luxury.
nathanm Posted April 17, 2013 Posted April 17, 2013 That guy's an overachieving jerk! I don't buy the full employment thing at all. How is that possible when one guy singlehandedly rebuilt a million homes and then went on to rebuild the entire country!? Geez, save some jobs for the other contractors, Superman! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the noble politicians who keep the marauding bandits at bay and make our way of life possible, but it can be too much when their heroism is putting their constituents out of work.
SimonF Posted April 17, 2013 Author Posted April 17, 2013 The Wikipedia writeup is also gushing regarding this master of central planning, not much time is given to any economic negatives:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee
yurface Posted April 17, 2013 Posted April 17, 2013 oh wow he copypasted Bismark's social programs 50 years after Bismark died. What a revolutionary.
ribuck Posted April 18, 2013 Posted April 18, 2013 I think they forgot the part about how his government starved the population with extreme and unnecessary food rationing. For example, they rationed eggs. Eggs! A hen lays almost one egg every day. And it can eat just about anything in a suburban garden (it loves slugs!). And if you have a rooster you will get fertile eggs and very soon have lots of hens. So there is never a need to impose an egg shortage. Of course, food rationing generally comes with price control (and eggs were no exception). It's to stop speculators making money, don't you know? If you legislate away the profit that would come from keeping the population well fed, you should not be surprised that it's in no-one's interests to build up their hen stocks to overcome the shortage, and you should not be surprised that the population goes hungry. Rationing of various types lasted a decade and a half*. When it finally faded away, and when compulsory military service for young people was abolished, the United Kingdom experienced a decade of rapid growth. Britain in the 1960s was one of the coolest places in the world, and one of the most prosperous. Hard to believe now. (*Actually, health rationing continues to this day.)
SimonF Posted April 18, 2013 Author Posted April 18, 2013 I wonder what the national debt was after all that central planning and welfare?
PatrickC Posted April 18, 2013 Posted April 18, 2013 It could be argued that he single handedly destroyed British industry by nationalising almost all of it. From ship building, steel, electricity production, coal etc etc. Thus encouraging future prime ministers to do the same in the 1960's when Britain was actually booming economically. It only took 10 years before profits sank to negative figures. The car industry which arguably was Britain’s finest industry went from most bought car in the world to laughing stock by the late 70's. The last vestiges of this industry now belong to BMW. Oh the irony some might say. Yet more irony is that Thatcher has been blamed for the demise of British industry. The decay was there well before Maggie arrived. Whilst her public private partnership solution was by no means the best alternative. From a statist perspective she did the only thing available whereby the state could retain significant influence over those industries, without the debt and losses caused by nationalization. I would rate Atlee as Britains worst 'economic' terroist.
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