and the more the banks are ringfenced against the misery the more I think this is deliberate and the result will be global and fascistic in nature. You have lost the plot. The last 30 years have seen a neo-liberal experiment in Europe where governments retreated from the economy and privatised all there is to privatise. However, this rightwing experiment has been an abject failure because people became less productive and started living on debt. Pretty much everything you have written here is factually incorrect. WHich is usually the case with anyone who uses the word "neo-liberal". Productivity has improved dramatically over the last thirty years. Possibly at the fastest rate ever in human history. Living standards and household income have doubled in just over twenty years. Government spending as a percentage of western European economies has risen pretty much everywhere over the last 20-30 years despite some privatisation. For instance, 51% of the UK economy is accounted for by government spending, back in the late 90s under Gordon Brown it was well under 40%. Debt ? Well, the UK has lots of personal debt, but Italy has almost no household debt. So you are just making an inaccurate generalisation. Growth is unsustainable. There must be a clear headed plan for the future that is focused on maintaining good communities without the expectation that more is better. We don't need 3/4 of the stuff on the shelves from WMD to plastic junk that clutter homes Growth however isn't just about