New Labour
I recently was invited to a lunch where one of the major names of New Labour, a leading entrepreneur who had hosted the lunch, and several business people including myself discussed the current political and economic outlook.
The host suggested at one point that the New Labour project had failed. Indeed the current turmoil of the Labour Party and its leader might cause one to come to that conclusion.
The reality is much more insidious. New Labour was deeply successful. “Its legacy will be that it has moved the mind of the average British person from centre- right to centre-left.
“New Labour was deeply successful. Its legacy will be that it has moved the mind of the average British person from centre- right to centre-left.”
The central thesis of New Labour is that government can encourage the markets but then play Robin Hood with the wealth that is created. Blair may have focused on the former; Brown’s true colours became apparent with the latter.
Is it possible to believe in free-markets and also an active role of government redistributing wealth? I would argue that these are mutually exclusive positions.
Those of us who believe in free-markets believe that individuals are responsible for their fellow man and for their personal destiny. We believe in human ingenuity, in the exercise of our intellects towards greatness and excellence, in the triumphs resulting from hard work, in generosity and rebirth – no one is ever down and out forever, and the creating a “bigger people enjoy
commitment to pie” where more prosperity.
Sadly, we have to accept that there are some real bastards in the world. There are those who leverage the wide open practice of capitalism in the free markets for their own ends, and couldn’t care less about whether people around them survive, thrive or die. I believe that this is a small percentage of humankind, and that most people most of the time want what’s best for the greatest good.
Still, I reluctantly accept that these “zero sum” people exist and are deeply envied in society rather than pitied for the bankruptcy of their spirits. I know that the more I try to tie the bastards down, the better they’ll get at their “win/lose” approach to life. Amoral wealthy people stay that way. No government will be able to re-engineer them for goodness. They use tax havens, lawyers and power to avoid compliance with governments who would rein them in.
Whereas New Labour argued that there should be fair rules, every sensible adult knows in their gut that life is inherently unfair. We can’t engineer fairness.
Surely
the right definition of fairness is that you get out of life what you put into it. We all start where we do, some of us the daughters of tycoons, others of us the daughters of beggars. I believe that inside of every poor person, however, there is a middle class person trying to get out. They “get out” through education, family support, good role models, their
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