The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Working Class

The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class 1910-2010

By Selina Todd

John Murray Publishers (2015)

Book Review

The People is about the rise of the British working class during World War I and its systematic erosion during the seventies as the Thatcher government systematically dismantled Britain’s manufacturing base.

British workers first began to see themselves as a cohesive force during 1914-18 as hundreds of thousands left domestic service (where most were employed) for the war industry. Working class consciousness reached its zenith during World War II, in part due to discriminatory treatment by the Churchill government. Working class women were often forced to leave well-paying jobs to be conscripted into the munitions industry. In contrast, middle and upper class women were exempted from conscription because they did “voluntary” work. Middle and upper class families also found it easier to be exempted from the mandatory evacuation scheme. The latter required rural families were required to accept child evacuees from urban centers without compensation.

The Churchill government provided virtually no funding for the mandatory evacuation scheme (which was organized mainly by schools and charitable groups), nor for benefits for families who lost housing, jobs and breadwinners due to German bombing, nor for proper air raid shelters. Government provided shelters were so wet and filthy, Londoners spontaneously seized and occupied the subway system, and there was nothing the government could do to stop them.

According to Todd, the austerity cuts that have turned Britain into a low wage economy actually started in 1976 (three years before Thatcher was elected prime minister) with public spending cuts imposed on the UK as a condition of an IMF loan. For the most part, this “free market” attitude continued under Blair and New Labour.

In her Afterward, Todd sees evidence of a growing popular discontent over inequality in the rise of UKIP (the United Kingdom Independence Party) and the Scottish independence referendum. The latter, she maintains, was actually more about inequality. More recently, this discontent has manifested in the election of left wing Jeremy Corbyn to run the Labour Party and the successful Brexit referendum.

Human Beings as Machines

Trapped: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom

Adam Curtis

BBC (2007)

Film Review

Part 2 The Lonely Robot

Part 2 takes a close look at the role American economist James Buchanan played in extending free market economic theory to human biology, politics and governments. The Impossibility Theorem is fundamental to Buchanan’s concept of “market democracy.” According to the Impossibility Theorem, collective will is impossible in a democracy because the desires of millions of individuals are too varied and complex. Buchanan maintained the only way to respond democratically to people’s wishes was to allow them to fully pursue their selfish self-interest in the marketplace.

Clinton Dismantles New Deal Welfare Programs

A direct result of Buchanan’s influence over Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton was massive cuts in taxes and social services, coupled with a repeal of corporate regulation. The most immediate result was a massive increase in inequality. Corporate elites became much, much richer – while nearly everyone else became much poorer. Ironically the gap between rich and poor would increase far more rapidly under liberal-leaning Blair and Clinton than under Thatcher and Reagan. Clinton will go down in history as the president who dismantled the welfare programs Roosevelt enacted under the New Deal.

Meanwhile overconfidence in computers and so called “behavioral economics” (free market theory) would result in government departments run by targets and incentive schemes. Sociopaths and economists quickly learned how to game the system by cheating on their targets.*

The Selfish Gene Hypothesis

Likewise biological scientists used free market and game theory to promote the Selfish Gene hypothesis. This theory conceptualized a simplistic view of human beings as machines that were controlled entirely by their genes. It held that genes, which were likened to on-board computers, compelled people to act selfishly to guarantee their genes’ survival.

This mechanistic view of human biology would lead to a profound change, led by psychiatrists and drug companies, in the way Brits and Americans viewed themselves. The new checklist diagnostic system the American Psychiatric Association (APA) launched in 1979 (see Part 1), coupled with the aggressive marketing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) would lead people to view themselves as machines – machines that needed to be fixed if they experienced unpleasant emotional states, such as worrying, conflict, insecurity or anxiety.

People Pop Pills to Cope with Deteriorating Social Conditions

Because these checklists deliberately ignored life circumstances that might cause unpleasant feelings, common reactions to life stresses became medicalized. This, in turn, led to an expectation that people would take pills to adjust to steadily worsening social conditions.**

The theoretical basis of behavioral economics began to unravel in the 1990s. The Selfish Gene hypothesis was abandoned when new genetic research revealed that cell’s ability to choose, based on environmental conditions, which parts of the DNA molecule become operational.

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*More recent research shows that only two sectors of society are driven purely by self-interest: sociopaths and economists.

** For example, loss of good paying and secure jobs, loss of representation in a rigid and corrupt government and overall loss of control over our lives.

Free link to film: The Trap 2 The Lonely Robot [BBC]