I was there for 27-and-a-bit years, and I'll always have an abiding affection for the place. This video does a good job of providing an outsider's point of view without being condescending or doing crap town gloating. Help unbreak Stoke by visiting!
Also good to see Drop City Books getting a plug. Some more news about that coming up ...
I lived in a similar place and wondered how it could get better, but it cannot because of at least two reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe first is that if by some sort of miracle Stoke (or Derby etc.) did develop and became a place-to-be, the government would try hard to revert that, because Stoke would then attract jobs and people from the south-East so stealing tenants and buyers and shop customers and cheap workers from London, Oxford, Guilford, Sevenoaks, etc., and this would crash most commercial banks and by reflex the whole system of financial and land speculation in the UK. The whole financial and property system of the UK depends on increasing congestion and thus all sorts of prices, but principally housing costs, in the south East with a constant influx of new jobs, tenants, buyers, low wage workers, and so does the whole political system.
The second is that the miracle cannot even begin to happen because the UK is a high-cost and therefore relatively high-wage economy, and it simply does not make sense to setup any new businesses in the UK. Simple and classic example: a skilled programmer in Stoke costs around £60,000/y, in India around £6,000/y and they have the same standard of living, because:
* Costs in India are dragged down by the enormous amount of very poor people who at the same time depress demand because they cannot afford to buy much, and boost supply of labour as there are so many desperate to get a job at any condition.
* Costs in England are boosted by the relatively large minority of very well paid people working in finance, property, law, management, etc. which also raise the general wage level because of "Baumol's cost disease". Also the effect of having been an oil exporter (keeping the pound high) has been continued by becoming a property deed exporter.
Which businesses are going to look at setting up in the UK rather than in China or Romania or Mexico?
In practice the only major competitive advantage of the UK in an era of global labour, product, capital markets is *sovereignty*, that is to rent the shield of sovereignty to interested parties worldwide, just as Bermuda, Switzerland, Jersey etc. do, and that applies only to the south-East in practice.
Perhaps for the north there will be the low-end version of the profits from renting sovereignty, when deregulated "free ports" will be established here and there, but they will be staffed by indentured third world "contract workers". The people of Stoke if they are employed there will be only as security guards.
The UK has some other advantages, such as decayed but still better infrastructure than most, but for these to matter wrt competition from third-world countries it would have to become a low-cost place, so that wages could fall substantially in nominal terms, but this would require a collapse in the price of housing and an end to "ripoff Britain" price gouging by oligopolies, and all major parties instead are determined to do exactly the opposite, to boost the rents of finance and business executives and property owners.
«The whole financial and property system of the UK depends on increasing congestion and thus all sorts of prices, but principally housing costs, in the south East»
ReplyDeleteBTW I was just reading an amazing post referring to an article that contains this marvellous approach:
https://braddelong.substack.com/p/draft-why-do-homeowners-tend-to-think
«puzzled and somewhat sardonic observations:
Addison Del Mastro: “[...] They seem to be saying, even if they don’t say it outright, something closer to “It would be wrong to take actions to lower housing prices, because that would be giving people something they haven’t earned.” In other words, home prices for many people effectively serve as proxies for deservingness. They effectively view freeing up the housing market or the land-use regime as if it was giving a handout — a fallacy many such critics would readily see in any other context. [...]”
The underlying idea that Addison del Mastro is trying to pin down is that the economy owes you: it owes you not just that it is easy to get a good job and not just that inflation be kept low but it owes you “number go up!” — that you profit from your assets as well as earning from your labor.»
Obviously both authors know well that higher property prices are actually a handout redistributed by governments to more affluent people from poorer people but cannot say so openly, so they are being "sardonic" :-).
The picture at the beginning of the post makes clear what the theme is though :-).
https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/88fd140c-e023-46c9-bc38-f4a8bd86e651_792x794.png
ReplyDelete«The picture at the beginning of the post makes clear what the theme is though :-).»
The people with the sacks in the foreground represent those absolutely determined to make sure that places like Stoke etc. remain broken so they be no competition to the places (mostly in the south-east) where they own their "precious".
I just found the whole thing horrifying. If it's an honest reflection of the situation in Stoke -- and Phil seems satisfied with it -- then this is wholly appalling. In South Africa, even in my Eastern Cape, you'd have to go to the shacklands to find such despair.
ReplyDeleteAnd while some may consider Blissex a broken record, it's hard to believe that this situation is not being encouraged by some rich and powerful people. Consider the piece about a huge "regeneration project" on which vast sums have been spent to no evident benefit . . .
Satisfied with it? What on earth gives you that strange idea?
ReplyDelete«some may consider Blissex a broken record»
ReplyDeleteI only obsess about property, Property!, PROPERTY!! because most middle class people are far more obsessed with it than myself, when talking with them casually, at work, at dinner parties, etc. I'd rather be talking about something more useful, but when it comes to the economy, sociology and politics, it is enormously important, and not just because 20-40% of the voters are totally obsessed with it.
When people get deeply in debt to put 10-20 times their savings in a single asset because it is sure to double in price every 7 years for decades, despite being wholly unproductive, that's a huge thing.
It is not me, it almost the the entire "petty bourgeousie" ("Middle England") that is obsessed with it, whatever bullshit they say about things.
Some author said that in the USA real estate is the national religion, in the UK it is far more important than religion. Besides some 19th century bearded guy from Trier recognized this:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch03.htm
“The Tories in England long imagined that they were enthusiastic about monarchy, the church, and the beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about ground rent.”
All the Members of Parliament around here sell the homes they bought in Stoke with the help from the tax we pay after they decide not to be MPs/ or lose. It must be wonderful to have that allowance. Not living in the real world. Little economic development in Stoke and area for a very long time. This chap that has visited sounds like he cares more and would have more drive to change things. Down to earth.
ReplyDeleteBusiness and industrial development. We need some real experienced people that have worked over a number of sectors over quite a number of years in the area of industrial development . Less folks taking themselves up- more real experience. Real experience which in the real world takes time and skill.
ReplyDelete