Monday, October 17, 2022

Shock, horror, Chancellor tells it like it is!

 


Quick quiz

Who said 'No government can control markets'?
a) the UK chancellor
b) the SPGB
c) both

On Monday 17 October Jeremy Hunt had us scrambling to consult the Socialist Standard subscriber list* because we couldn’t believe that he had put the same argument as the SPGB, declaring loud and clear that ‘No government can control markets’ (bbc.in/3yMdtml).

We quibble with the accuracy of what he went on to say ‘…but every government can give certainty about the sustainability of public finances’ (think pandemics / ‘surprise’ wars, etc.) but it’s not our job to argue about the way the capitalist class funds state functions.

The fact is that markets eventually control any government that attempts to administer these state functions. Those markets in turn are governed by the capitalists’ drive for profit, and when Hunt talks about maintaining or restoring confidence, he means that the capitalists need reassurance that states won’t hinder that drive.

Workers should remember this when reformist parties (right or left) promise to introduce order to the system. They won’t. They’re liars or they’re deluded.

*Turns out he isn’t a subscriber, yet.

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