The man whose blog that I follow, decided to spend two, months are so in Goa, to escape the worse of the winter weather. Commented on the country and how things were, several replies to his blog one of which I publish.

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Interesting JW. It is good to travel and look an different cultures. It is also good in some case to have a ticket home when you want to leave, but if you have to live their permanent things might not be such a bed of roses.

As you say we can learn a lot, and are doing so from India.

What is civilisation and culture?

Civilisation is what the majority accept and rules their lives. Appears when a culture is near its peak. Reason being;

It allows the haves to control the have-nots.

Culture is what the majority actually do, or think that they want to do. What the majority think that they want to do is influenced by;

A] A younger generation who in most cases tend to be have-nots and want to become haves. Or;

B] An influx of people who enter the host country, who like in A] above in most cases are have-nots and want to be haves.

It is a fact that the majority cannot be haves, so a canny minority of the have-nots, manipulate the have-not majority to campaign against the current haves for a bigger slice of the cake. If really canny they get the cake, throw a few crumbs to the rest, then they become the new haves.

These new haves then form new rules to control the majority, who are forced to accept these rules.

This is the cause of the rise, fall and then rise again of civilisations for millennia.

A good example is India; the Indian have-nots wanted the British out of India so the canny few could become the haves. You can see around you the crumbs that have been given to the majority of Indian have-nots.

Britain’s infrastructure was trashed due to lack of investment and war damage at the end of 1945 and while no paradise; the majority [have-nots] gained a decent standard of living. [Ditto Europe]

As the newly independent countries, that have been ruled by the new haves for some 60+ years. The new haves have done well [much better then the established haves in Britain and Europe] but for the have-nots in these newly independent countries life, as been no bed of roses.

Unfortunately the haves in Britain and Europe have learned from India’s current haves [TATA etc] and are planning similar reforms for themselves.

So the haves are trying to [successfully] in most cases reduce the amount of tax they pay. The companies they own have done the same thing. What this does is to reduce the tax raised by the government.

The Government as three options, a] raise taxation, but it as two problems with this, 1] the tax base is being reduced, [off shore tax havens] and on shore tax avoidance [legal and illegal] 2] Growth in low paid employment, who whilst pay little or no tax [do draw tax credits] which costs someone? b] Second option, it can borrow to cover the deficit, unfortunately this will have to be both repaid and % paid on these borrowings. Or c] it can cut benefits [costs] but this is not popular and cost votes.

Increased taxation I think is off, those who pay taxes are already paying 60% [direct & in-direct] Borrowing, the government is maxed out already [borrowing for investment in things, Hospital’s School’s etc is fine] but to borrow to pay benefits [which includes tax-credits, housing benefits, means tested payments and yes state pensions] which are ongoing and increasing costs. So the only option left is to reduce these costs.

This will have to happen for several reasons, a] As we enter Brexit, and we become worse off [if pundits are right] b] UK’s manufacturing base is much smaller then it used to be 30 or so years ago.

c] The banking financial sector was paying taxes, but just the bare minimum and have been heavily subsidised [banking sector failure and bail-out] not to mention they might move from London to Frankfurt. d] The service sector [flipping burgers, Costa coffee shops, taxi companies etc] are only internal money. e] a,b,c,d has got to pay for the UK’s imports. In the long-term if we as a country do not export [earn money] enough things to pay for the countries imports [what we spend] then we have a serious problems ahead. [who will lend the UK government money?]

I cannot see the haves [many of the UK’s companies now owned by foreign countries [Haves] being to concerned about the living standards of UK’s have-nots. So a simple question, in the next ten or so years what will happen to UK’s have-nots.