In addition to the obvious reasons, like the Labour government's generally poor performance for the past nine months, and the huge cost over-run on the Olympic stadium, I suspect that one of the factors which lost Ken Livingstone the election for Mayor of London is that people resent the fact that the Routemasters were replaced by these bendybuses. These are a daily misery not just for the people who have to use them, but for other road users who now have to take extra care to make sure they do not get in the way.
Labour had promised to keep the Routemasters and a substantial amount was spent on giving them a thorough overhaul before they were suddenly withdrawn in 2005.
It is still possible to travel on a Routemaster in London but only on sightseeing services. This one is in service in Helsinki.
I got involved in a discussion with a Youtuber called “Philosophy all along”. This was in connection with criticism of Trump’s policy of deporting illegal migrants, which he argued would be bad for the economy as it would reduce demand. This implies that there is a need to import people to sustain demand. There is no obvious reason why a population should not be able to consume everything that the same population produces. If it can not, then something else is going on. It is a basic principle that wages are the least that workers will accept to do a job. Wages are a share of the value added by workers through their wages. The remainder is distributed as economic rent, after government has taken its cut in taxes. Monopoly profit is a temporary surplus that after a delay gets absorbed into economic rent. Land values in Silicon Valley are an example of this; it's like a gold rush. The miners get little out of it. Rent and tax syphon purchasing power away from those who produce the g...
Kommentarer