What does this mean for the average citizen?

It means government fiscal policy is not about ‘balancing the books’ ( as how can you be in debt if you are the ultimate issuer/creator of a currency), it’s about balancing the economy which is the balance of credit creation to product ratio, if out of balance either way you get either inflation or stagflation, thus balance by issuance (via banks, bonds, QE etc) or retraction by targeted taxation on inflationary areas. Therefore government can take back control from the ‘markets’. Once this is understood, rather than being servile as to the balancing the books model, the economy can operate within its restricted resource both natural (soil, climate, mineral) and created ( healthy, happy, educated workforce with a democratic open government, rule of law and working with capital rather than fighting it, ie Nordic and German models) workforce. After all Gordon Brown (Labour chancellor 1997-2007) proved that an economy can only grow with increased liquidity (ie new currency) then if put into production you get economic growth assuming you are producing what the world requires, deficits can go down without affecting services, if we have trade surpluses ie hold other countries debt/borrowings and convert to our currency.

“Step back, it’s messy, always in flux and therefore always worth fighting for, even if we get it wrong sometimes as no doubt I will over the rest of my life”

This frees us from the ‘how are you going to pay for it’ question, it’s not how, but rather, will it be inflationary in the wrong area? Will it devalue the currency? Thus the need for wise investment not for quick gains, but long term steady growth in the right areas that a country needs ie New Green Deal based on FDR’s New Deal.

So rather than fighting for the individualism of ‘the Prisoner’ to the detriment of others, it’s about being a responsible individual aware of others. After all the paradox was revealed that he wasn’t ‘No 6’ he was in fact ‘No1’ and the only thing he was fighting against was his own paranoia of the recent past, we are all potential prisoners of our pasts so to truly break free we have to look with a self critical rational eye, learn and maybe eat some cold humble pie. Otherwise like the Prisoner the self obsession will lead to the disappointment of just a mirror, when it was helping others that would’ve been the answer.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”

The hyper individualism of Hayek is as bad as the hyper collectivism of Marx, it’s actually ‘the fluxism of the messy middle’ of never arriving, but always striving, this is what hope is about, a road travelled on, moving looking at the goal for others to take up. For me at present the Nordic Model is our best option.

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