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"I do not find the causes of our present troubles—certainly not the main causes—in anything that has been done or left undone in these last five years. It goes much further back than that and if you want to seek the real cause of the mischief, then I think you go back a full generation . . . In 1913 Britain was a highly efficient community; we earned more than we needed . . . After that first war, when we began to get into difficulties we simply let that margin vanish—we lived on the fat ... If you take the volume of our imports—I don't mean the value in money, I mean the volume, the weight, the quantity of goods we bought—you will find that in 1938 it was 20% larger than in 1913 . . . And if you similarly take the volume, the weight, the quantity of our exports in that 25 years you would find that it had gone down by 40%. That means to say that the average Englishman over those 25 years, came to consume—to eat if you like—20% more of other people's production and give in return 40% less of his own production. Well of course that's a wonderful state of affairs so long as it lasts. But it can't go on forever."
The Boss Is Still Boss. In other words, the Socialists cannot be blamed for Britain's major ills, but they have not cured those ills. Labor has done little, if anything, to correct this brontosaurian rigidity which frightens Crowther. On the contrary, the setting up of large bureaucratic organizations to run the nationalized industries has added to the prevailing clumsy rigidity of the economy.
Nationalization is not a burning issue in the present campaign. If the Tories win they will repeal the bill nationalizing steel (passed, but not yet effective). The Tories will not denationalize coal, rails, electricity, the main airlines or the Bank of England. If they are elected the Laborites promise to nationalize a few more industries, but only a fraction of what they have taken over to date.
This practical agreement between party programs on nationalization does not mean that the average Briton likes nationalization and wants more of it. Far from it. Years ago, many Laborites thought that nationalization would usher in a Utopia where the servant would be master. It has not worked out quite that way.
From the worker's viewpoint, nationalization has not gained much. The boss is still the boss and the state turns out to be an even more remote and impersonal employer than a private corporation. That is why nationalization as an idea has lost its magic appeal. Who cares whether he owns the railways or not when the trains are just as dusty and drafty and the fares are higher than they ever were before?
The welfare state is largely responsible for the crushing tax burden (including local as well as national taxes) borne by the average Briton, estimated at about 40% of his total income (against 25% in the Fair Deal U.S.). British taxes dry up incentive for production and progress; they raise production costs and thus drag down Britain's exports.