Our values: killing pensioners to save money

Britain's PM found a black hole in the country's public finances. It looks like the pensioners will have to help pay up at the cost of their lives!

Nothing says "our values" like reducing deficits by killing pensioners. Britain's new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has recently announced his government's plan to cut winter fuel subsidies to 10 million pensioners in Britain. It's a tough decision, it will be unpopular and it'll hurt, but it just must be done. Namely, Sir Keir and his cabinet discovered, to their utter shock and consternation, that there was a £22 billion "black hole" in Britain's public finances! This is an emergency that must be rectified even if it causes some discomfort to a few pensioners.

How much discomfort, and to how many pensioners? Back in 2017, when Tory Prime Minister Theresa May floated a similar proposal and Labour was in opposition, their own research determined that cutting winter fuel allowances would kill an estimated 3,850 pensioners that winter. And that was five years ago - practically the good old days, before the "typical household energy bills increased by 54% in April 2022 and 27% in October 2022."

Selective discernment and sizing of black holes

Saving money by killing people may seem wrong, and Sir Keir himself had no trouble understanding this before he was Prime Minister: as recently as May of this year, he righteously lambasted the then PM Rishi Sunak about black holes and killing pensioners. He boldly confronted his predecessor: "So will [the Prime Minister] now rule out taking pensioners' winter fuel payments off them to help fund his £46 billion black hole?"

Yes, you read that correctly: Sir Keir already knew about the black hole and said it was £46 billion, not £22 billion. Well, let's not be too fastidious about these details: the black hole is there and it's size 22 or 46 or some other number, whatever. Who knows, maybe science had changed since May 2024. Whatever the case, Labour is now in government and, confronted with the 22B-size black hole, they no longer see what the big fuss with killing pensioners is all about. And it’s not exactly like this is a new thing - here’s a Daily Mail headline from 12 years ago:

Losing power, regaining the moral compass

Meanwhile the Tories, now that they're in opposition, suddenly regained their moral compass: on Sunday, 8 September Tory chairman Richard Fuller said that, "this week's vote on the Conservatives motion is a vote to protect millions of vulnerable pensioners. No MP from any party should run scared from stopping Labour's cruel plans... It's time for all Members of Parliament to put aside party politics and do the right thing." 

Again, to avoid any confusion, by "the right thing" he meant continuing to pay out the pensioners' heating subsidies, not plugging the black hole with their corpses. Even the Tory establishment aristocrat Jacob Rees-Mogg rushed to seize moral high ground and pile in on Starmer. Apparently, discerning right from wrong is only given to those who are in opposition, then cruelly taken away as soon as they're in power. This is such a wonderful, top-grade democracy, it must be exported everywhere around the world and by force if necessary, especially to dark tyrannical autocracies like Russia.

Meanwhile, folks are cozy in Russia

In spite of not enjoying our sterling liberal democracy, it would appear that ordinary Russians don’t fear winter, black holes or utility bills. 

Just yesterday, Irish businessman Chay Bowes who now lives in Russia shared his own utility bill on X and wrote as follows: "Dear Europeans. I've just paid my annual energy bill here in Moscow Russia. It covers all electricity, heating (on all through winter automatically from the city), and Water (hot and cold) and rubbish disposal. It cost me €146 for everything for the entire year."

How does that compare with the democratical UK? In Britain, the average energy bill is a bit higher: it’s it amounts to £176, or in euros, it’s 209. But that’s per month, which works out to just over €2,500 per year - a whopping 17 times what Mr. Bowes pays in Moscow! Given that the average monthly retirement income in the UK is only about £1,512, these are very high rates, forcing many pensioners to choose between heating and eating.

The Russians do seem significantly more comfortable and less anxious about having such basic things as hot water, electricity and heating available to them. They are even free to use wood-burning stoves if they prefer - it’s a luxury that could result in a £300 penalty or a criminal record in democratic Britain.

Russia’s social welfare state

Enjoying certain comforts in Russia is not a fortuitous accident of chance: in its constitution, Russia is explicitly defined as a social welfare state. Welfare of its citizens is the government's core responsibility. In my book "Grand Deception," I highlighted two well known examples of the way this works in reality. Here's one:

During [Vladimir Putin's] first winter as President [in 2000], entire towns and villages across the far east of the country counting as many as 400,000 inhabitants, lost heating for the lack of coal. A serious crisis emerged with mines shutting down, workers out in the streets and even hospitals ceasing to function because of the cold. But the coal for heating was available in Russia, only most of it was already allotted for export. Vladimir Putin didn’t think that Russian people should suffer freezing conditions all winter in order for that coal to be exchanged for American dollars. He decreed that export of coal be stopped immediately and that all available quantities be sent back to Siberia to fuel the boiler stations. ... in Putin’s world, well-being of the people takes precedence over financial profits of the investor class. This concept may seem exotic and alien to Westerners who for a generation had been brainwashed with neoliberal economics where profits trump any and every other concern, including health and well-being of the people. Nonetheless, I believe that beyond the brainwash, every normal person – even western-educated economists – would agree that in a crisis, the decent thing to do would be to take care of the people and let the oligarchs cope with one quarter or a year of impaired profitability of their enterprises.

Unfortunately however, in western liberal democracies, this ability to discern right from wrong depends on being in opposition or, for most public officials, being in retirement. While in power, Western officials seem to lose this faculty.

About economic theories and neoliberal ideology

Thankfully however, we always have ideology and economic theories to fall back on. They provide a compelling case for why ours is the best economic system in history of creation, why ensuring people's welfare is socialism and therefore bad and evil, and why unscrupulous selfishness by the individual magically yields the best possible outcome for the collective. For decades now, we’d been sold the bill of goods that privatized, for profit, deregulated enterprise automagically result in the most reliable service, enhance consumer choice and lower the costs, and so utilities, trash disposal, postal services, roads, railroads, ports and most other infrastructure has been sold to private investors and turned into for profit enterprises. So far as utilities are concerned, the result is that in the UK, the mothership of neoliberal economics, people pay some of the most extortionate utility bills in the world.

Well, so far as our ruling establishment is concerned, the solution is that we first need to regime change Russia and get rid of the evil Mr. Putin. He is ruining our neat theories and the ideology they support. Once we can force our neoliberal order along with democracy and freedom onto Russia, everything else will fall neatly into place. It is therefore just and right for the British establishment to call on their nation to prepare to go to war against Russia, no matter the cost in black holes, freezing pensioners, or any other such undignified trifle. For king and the country, by jingo!

Alex Krainer – @NakedHedgie is the creator of I-System Trend Following and publisher of daily TrendCompass investor reports which cover over 200 financial and commodities markets. One-month test drive is always free of charge, no jumping through hoops to cancel. To start your trial subscription, drop us an email at TrendCompass@ISystem-TF.com

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