Cuts , cuts and more cuts

As the party in charge of the finances of the capitalist state in Britain, the Con-LibDems has to find the money to pay for the government. There exists an ongoing desire for “cheap government”. Governments are entirely dependent for their finances on the profit-making sector of the economy. This is the sector where the profit motive reigns supreme. As governments are not engaged in producing wealth themselves, the only way they can get money is by taxing or borrowing from this sector. Governments, not just in Britain but everywhere, have had to resort to drastic measures to raise money. When Chancellors say they haven't got the money to maintain public services at existing levels they are telling the truth. They haven't. The cupboard really is bare.

They have drastically reduced the level of services provided by national and local government. They have considerably worsened the working conditions of public sector employees, attacking their alleged “privileged” terms and conditions. When they oppose higher wages they do so because their responsibility, by virtue of being the government, is to keep the capitalist system functioning in the only way that capitalism can function, that is by enabling the capitalists to make profits. We can blame the “wicked Tories” for all this. But the Tories have essentially been the agents - granted , the all-too-willing agents, it is true - of economic forces beyond the control of any government. Government spending has to be squeezed to allow the profit-seeking sector to retain more of the reduced profits they have been making. And governments have no alternative but to dance to this tune.
Their fervent hope is that through increasing the efficiency of business, market discipline will make Britain an attractive place for investors and so help further domestic economic expansion. Their policies are thus geared around providing the "right environment" for businesses to grow.

Marx once wrote that the government is "but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie". And it's still true. The function of any government is to manage the common affairs of the capitalist class as a whole. This involves spending the money raised from taxes in a prudent way on things that will benefit the capitalist class as a whole. That's what most government spending goes on, and balancing this against income from taxes is what budgets are essentially about.

The lesson of all this is? First, governments are there not to further the common interest but to run the capitalist system, in the interest of those who live off profits to the detriment of those who live off wages and salaries. Second, that under the profit system workers are always on the receiving end.