Is keeping the rich happy and the rest frightened a prerequisite for a successful economy?
It’s a cynic way of phrasing it, but yes, or at least one of them. It shouldn’t be, but it is. A successful economy, alas, requires an environment in which people are keen to do business, which in essence does mean, as you say, keeping the rich happy. In the current climate though the acceptance of that by the general population may well be stretched to braking point. I also think it gives a dangerous amount of leverage to those who think that because they’re rich they deserve a say in running the country. An example was a few months ago, a couple of, I think, investment banks made a statement saying that if their capital gains tax wasn’t lowered they’d take their business to Ireland, the very next day George Osborne wrote to Alistaire Darling saying their demands should be met. To summarise: yes it is, but it’s been taken far too far for far too long.
