What is causing that 180 billion deficit?

[Doggy Styles]

I've been wondering this for a while, and I knew there is only one place to come for the answer.

It is estimated we have 1 million extra civil servants under Labour, which obviously helped cause our massive deficit. Some say that's the major contributor.

So, using the back-of-a-fag-packet method, that's one million earning an average of 20K a year, double that figure for overheads. Get rid of them and we save 40 billion quid a year (for the moment, forget the welfare they'll need during gradual transition to proper jobs).

That is a significant saving. But our deficit is 180 billion a year. The banks are repaying government loans, or received one-off payments over a year ago for public shares. Where is the rest of the 180 billion every year leaking to?

WTF has this government done over the past 12 years to leave us in this situation?

[AtW]

WTF has this government done over the past 12 years to leave us in this situation?

This.

[TriggerHippy]

War can rack up the cost ... we've had Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan .. got to add up to a pretty penny.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Sminki

[sasguru]

All you economically illiterate dim-wits who slag off public sector jobs - have you stopped to consider the following:

1) There are not enough private sector jobs to go round in the UK since we destroyed our economic base in the 80s
2) The public sector use private sector goods and services, including IT contractors
3) A drastic cut in public sector jobs will destroy the consumption-led UK economy.

At least the public sector non-jobs force people to come into an office every day where they might be useful rather than paying them to sit at home which would otherwise be the case.

HTH

[TriggerHippy]

1) There are not enough private sector jobs to go round in the UK since we destroyed our economic base in the 80s
2) The public sector use private sector goods and services, including IT contractors
3) A drastic cut in public sector jobs will destroy the consumption-led UK economy.

1) There is not enough private sector taxation to support a bloated public sector
2) The public sector use outsourced goods and services, including IT contractors
30A failure to drastically cut in public sector jobs will result in unsustainable deficit levels.

[Gonzo]

All you economically illiterate dim-wits who slag off public sector jobs - have you stopped to consider the following:

1) There are not enough private sector jobs to go round in the UK since we destroyed our economic base in the 80s
2) The public sector use private sector goods and services, including IT contractors
3) A drastic cut in public sector jobs will destroy the consumption-led UK economy.

At least the public sector non-jobs force people to come into an office every day where they might be useful rather than paying them to sit at home which would otherwise be the case.

HTH

Er, isn't that Gordon Brown's entire argument for continuing to spend at ruinous levels?

The public sector does not generate wealth so you get less out of it than you put in.

In boom times this can be used to raise the standard of living of people that would otherwise have very little.

At the moment it is a very expensive luxury.

Very shortly the country will not be able to afford it.

[sasguru]

Very shortly the country will not be able to afford it.

Hmmm can the country afford to make a million people unemployed?
Is paying them benefits (unemployment, housing etc etc) to do nothing more efficient than paying them a bit more to do something?
I don't have the answer to that question but that is the crux of the matter.

[AtW]

Hmmm can the country afford to make a million people unemployed?

It depends on whether cost of maintaining such jobs is higher than benefits that would need to be paid.

At £40k level (salary, pension, overheads) it should certainly be cheaper to keep them on benefits, however that will cost their local labour MP their jobs, which is why they ain't being make redundant.

[DiscoStu]

Is it time to abolish pulic sector trade unions?