Baroness Thatcher has died.

[Starter]

Now the favourite word of management, because it enables them to enforce job losses while not using the phrase 'job losses'.

The bottom line here, and you are not going to like this, is that if an organization is able to provide the same output after "modernizing" then those jobs weren't real jobs at all, but rather "welfare" and needed to go as soon as possible.

A hardship on the ones out of a job but necessary for all to go forward. Otherwise we would still have government subsidized buggy whip factories.

[Rollo]

The bottom line here, and you are not going to like this, is that if an organization is able to provide the same output after "modernizing" then those jobs weren't real jobs at all, but rather "welfare" and needed to go as soon as possible.

What happens to all the profits of all those business though? They all used to be owned by the British taxpayer and now they are not. Is is right to privatise profits, when the dividends could have been used to lower the taxation burden on the rest of the country? Surely that amounts to three decades of profits theft.

It is also an irony, that Britain's nuclear reactors are now via EDF, 85% owned by the French Government. That would have gone down nicely with Thatcher's anti-EU stance, to be actually owned by them.

[anthonyvop]

Now the favourite word of management, because it enables them to enforce job losses while not using the phrase 'job losses'.

Who cares?

The management has an obligation to maximize profits.

A job isn't a right.

What happens to all the profits of all those business though? They all used to be owned by the British taxpayer and now they are not. Is is right to privatise profits, when the dividends could have been used to lower the taxation burden on the rest of the country? Surely that amounts to three decades of profits theft.

What profits?
Government run industries rarely turn a profit if ever.

But that isn't the point. A government exists for only 2 things. National defense and to provide "essential" services the private sector cannot provide. A factory of any type is not an essential service.

[Starter]

What happens to all the profits of all those business though? They all used to be owned by the British taxpayer and now they are not. Is is right to privatise profits, when the dividends could have been used to lower the taxation burden on the rest of the country? Surely that amounts to three decades of profits theft.

The companies earn the profits; pay dividends; those dividends get spent in one of two ways: 1) By the payee for their own use resulting in demand and jobs in other areas. 2) Reinvested in other profit making enterprises creating more jobs. In both cases there are new jobs, just not the same old ones. Nobody digs a hole in the back yard and buries their new found dividends. The country gets to tax those profits too, so there is still some of it coming back to the government.

It is also an irony, that Britain's nuclear reactors are now via EDF, 85% owned by the French Government. That would have gone down nicely with Thatcher's anti-EU stance, to be actually owned by them.

That's what happens when you sit on your hands and don't move forward. Your lunch gets eaten by someone else. Some of that is happening here now too.

[henners88]

Dec 1984 - British Telecommunications

That one example was one of the more positive moves IMO. BT employees like my father were offered the chance to buy shares in the company and were in fact paid in shares through bonuses. The companies profits have risen to this day. This can't be said of every company that was privatised by Margaret Thatcher. British Rail is a prime example.

[ArrowsFA1]

A government exists for only 2 things. National defense and to provide "essential" services the private sector cannot provide.

“The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.”
Thomas Jefferson

[SGWilko]

My computer has been lit up this morning by elated Brits and their drunken shenanigans from last night. The one thing that stood out the most was a Conga line full of people singing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. I wasn't alive during Maggie's rule of Britain, and was never affected in any way by her decisions. I just never realized how divisive she was over in the UK.

I just hope that Maggie doesn't get access to public funds for her funeral. It would seem like a slap in the face to the ol' goat. Maggie's funeral should be completely privatized, and donors to her funeral proceedings in return would get advertising space on her coffin/hearse. I think that would probably be the best way to honor Margaret.

I suspect there are a few tobacco firms would be happy to sponsor her funeral. She was quite an advocate in her post PM years after all.......

[SGWilko]

Manufacturing for instance the unions would make up any excuse not to increase productivity.

Another example is the print unions .

Oh my, my dad used to work as a cashier at the Express - in the days when Fleet St was the b-all of the newspaper industry. He compalined to his boss once that there were about an additional 25% staff on the rota that were 'not there'. Basically, made up workers, the salaries for which were divied out to the genuine workers.

My dad was summararily told to keep his nose out or he'd be sure to lose his job.

You could only ever get away with sh!t like that as a member of a union, sadly. And you can easily see why 'great' British industry was so utterly uncompetitve, unproductive and uneconomical.

[SGWilko]

What happens to all the profits of all those business though? They all used to be owned by the British taxpayer and now they are not.

Was privatisation not a crude tool used for quick money to brink the UK back from the brink?

[SGWilko]

British Rail is a prime example.

True - but British Rail post privatisation is many different comanies vying to screw the public for every penny in order to maximise profits while still getting a government subsidy......