Forty or fifty years ago people believed that Progress could not be stopped. So long as we did not destroy ourselves in a nuclear war,a rosy future of material well-being and leisure lay just around the corner. And indeed, as necessities such as food and clothing are so cheap, why is it that we do not dedicate our time to flower arranging and maj-jong, or whatever takes our fancy?
Here in the year 2013 we are busier than ever, earning the money to buy our leisure, as our independent activities are increasingly turned into commodities.
In the United Kingdom more people than ever are in paid work. Women have been dragged out of the home, their infants either aborted or abandoned in day nurseries, and millions of immigrants have been brought in to provide cheap labour.
The treadmill turns ever faster.
Nearly all these newly created jobs are in the service industries, either in unnecessary bureaucracy, or in finance, or in servicing some need, real or imagined.
The economy just has to keep growing, because money is power. More aid work means more taxation, which means more taxation, which means more hierarchy, which means more centralised power.
A strong economy does not make us any better off than before, or better off than people in other countries. Our quality of life may be better or worse than others, depending on a number of factors, such as security, a clean environment, a vibrant society, which have nothing to do with the economy.
We have to keep working so our masters keep their power. When they tell us that 'we' are one of the biggest economies in the world, what they mean is that they are one of he world's most powerful bureaucracies, whose reach extends into every corner of the globe, and every detail of our lives.
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