Airstrip One

One Step Beyond - 16th December 2002, 23.16

Clearly, there is a horrible fascination in watching the Left review and criticise the Left. Will Hutton wrote The World We're In as an extension of his thesis that stakeholding capitalism was far superior to the alternative model, Anglo-American capitalism. It is no surprise to learn that Hutton values the great successes achieved by the Rhenish model.

Robin Blackburn in the New Left Review points out some of the 'tricks of the trade' that any journalist spouting off will use to make their case. There is one bizarre passage discounting American homicides for road deaths, cited as evidence of Hutton's anti-Americanism and another demonstrating how the author ignores economic statistics that undermine his poorly conceived thesis.

The familiar statistics for the tens of thousands of victims of US gun violence are not matched by similar figures for those suffering racial attacks in Germany, Italy, France and Britain. Bad as US homicide figures undoubtedly are—around 15,000 fatalities a year—they are far outstripped by the 40,000 annual road deaths. European road-death figures are the same—considerably higher, if new member states are included.

For about three paragraphs, Blackburn does make sense, citing the usual symptoms of European decline: high social security costs, high unemployment and wide swathes of exclusion from the 'world of work'.

However, lunacy soon returns in his answer:

Instead of nearly doubling the payroll taxes, which already absorb a fifth of wages, the Commission could establish a Euro-pension funded by a continent-wide share levy, assessed at 10 per cent of annual profits. The resulting shares could be held for future income and their voting power used to buttress stakeholder institutions in every region.

Redistribution from rich to poor districts, wealth taxes and a levy on shares to impoverish us all. Madness.