A friendly Friday wager
Every day now news stories slip into the press about hikes in fees, from increases in seatbelt fines and passport costs to rising Court debt fees and Land registry fees.
And here’s the rub. Whilst those of us working in the private sector face redundancy, part time working, enforced holidays, loss of bonus’ etc, the public sector seems to carry on regardless. It seems immune to the problems facing the rest of us.
Where else would you find price increases the response to falling demand other than the public sector? “Its to protect the quality of the service”. Oh right – must remember to drop a line Tescos on that one.
And heres the wager I would like to place with you. What will you bet me that the various price increases we are currently witnessing “as a result of falling demand”, will be reversed when demand picks up again ? Come the much-advertised economic boom will we see cheaper passports, a cut in seatbelt fines, lower land registry fees?
Hmmm….
Anybody willing to take on the bet ?
July 10th, 2009 at 10:38 am
“Where else would you find price increases the response to falling demand other than the public sector?”
Well the car industry… oh sorry, apart from the public sector.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I think the price increases were in response to the offer of a government subsidy to bring them back down again, rather than falling demand.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Sorry to say this, but the same would happen under either of the 3 main parties (LibLab in particular). They all want the state to grow and grow continuously, and that costs ever increasing amounts of money – so rises in tax, fines, various fees, etc – anything that govt can get it’s hands on.
It will get to the point where the private sector is completely suffocated and can no longer continue, and shortly after that happens the whole system will collapse because there will be no new money, and no incentive for businesses to continue.