Behind Blue Eyes

As 2011 draws to a close and I think about what I would like 2012 to look like my mind has been over Christmas – in a rather un-Christian way – pondering money. It seems to be a human dilemma to constantly feel like we don’t have enough money, even though we live with riches our grandparents could not possibly have imagined in their youth. Certainly my grandfather, who was born in 1898 into a family that struggled to make ends meet, must have marvelled at the comforts of modern life at the end of his days. I live on the border of the higher rate of income tax but I still feel like I have to be extremely careful every month. There is no Manna from Heaven to pay for the bloody gas and electricity.

2011 has been, to steal a friend’s phrase a “year of the cutback”. I set myself an extremely tough target to reduce the burden of debt from my spreadsheet. Remarkably, I haven’t missed it by much. Contemplating my calculator at lunchtime another target suddenly appears in reach. If I carried on being a tight bastard for another year then by the end of 2012 I could have a nice round number in my bank account.

But, stealing another friend’s phrase, isn’t this all rather a case of “numbers on a screen”? I sometimes fear that by concentrating so hard on being sensible I will wake up one day with a decent bank balance regretting that I have not enjoyed myself very much. It could be even worse: I might have chipped away at the mortgage, be feeling financially more confident and independent and then get hit by a proverbial bus. It could be even worse: I might financially bore myself to an early grave.

I was doing some back of the envelope calculations and worked out that I could give myself enough pocket money each month to do the sorts of things I like doing, but then realised that I hadn’t included a holiday in 2012. A year without a holiday? Rubbish! Another year with my ancient laptop? I’ll be lucky. Then I remembered the plan is already off course because a fat bill from my freeholder is due thanks to some electrical work which is to start any minute. And what if my income changes for whatever reason? Would I feel dependent on having a lodger when, quite honestly, I would rather have the place to myself? And with no space in the budget for home improvements I might be living on my own in a miserable slum before the year is out. And all these issues built on the very flimsy premise that we all get through the year without a major financial or economic apocalypse.

No.

No.

No.

The plan for 2012: to have no plan for 2012.

Happy New Year!

Well I have this week off and I’m not the sort to sit around doing nothing. It’s too cold to toddle around outside so here goes! I’m using Delia Smith‘s “Plain and Simple White Bread” recipe because anything more complicated would be beyond me. Master Baker Richard Elliot could probably tell you an amusing story about the time I tried to made pizza dough… he had to come and rescue me!

Midday: I’ve made the dough and it looks plausible, it took about half an hour from raw materials

13.45: It looks less impressive after having the air knocked out of it

14.20: I fear this may not have risen enough but it’s about to go in the oven anyway

15.15: the finished product! I think five minutes overdone to be frank, the crust is *very* crusty. Tastes wonderful though!

Before I get going: I support the right of anyone to take a day off unpaid. I support the freedom to associate with and co-ordinate with like-minded people. The current strike procedure is, actually, quite heavy going.

However most people have realised that striking is counter-productive. The unionised firms with poor industrial relations in the 60s and 70s ultimately shed most of their workforce one way or another. If I went on strike, for example, my employers would almost certainly make a mental note and it would be the end of any career progression under that umbrella. I would also be making the firm less profitable and therefore less able to employ me at all.

A lot of big political decisions are based less on stark rational choices than a general feeling or consensus. By that I mean there is no precisely predictable point at which, say, tax levels become acceptable or legal requirements become too onerous or a particular government policy loses public support. If public policy was an exact science then we could just appoint the correct set of technocrats and forget about it.

We are lucky. We live in a democracy: by and large the country is run by a consensus ahead of vested interests. We actually aren’t run predominantly by bankers or lobbyists or trades unions*.

The consensus can shift very quickly. We saw that in the 70s when Heath asked for the support to bash the UK economy into the real world and lost but just five years later Britain elected a far more radical leader.

The point? According to my own quick estimate which was (surprisingly) confirmed by the calculator on the BBC site, the public services which I appreciate cost me about £1000 a year. And yet my council tax is that much on its own. The rest of the approximately £12,000 a year I pay in tax does not directly provide me with anything at all.

We have a carefully constructed “social contract” here which means I am supposed to be happy to pay for things for people with less broad shoulders than me. But at some point people like me, people who are net huge contributors, might ask whether this money is going to provide essential services to the less fortunate or simply to prop up a vested unionised monopoly interest, if I am simply paying into a pension scheme which, because of the heavy burden of taxation, I cannot afford for myself.

So be careful today, public sector strikers. You may just find that at some point the consensus breaks and taxpayers themselves go on strike and decide to go to the market for the services you provide and leave the rest to fend for themselves. People like me need people like you far less than you imagine and you need us far more than you know.

* let’s leave this discussion for another day, eh?