Let’s get fiscal, fiscal, I wanna get…

Feeling undervalued at work is not very pleasant. If you’ve ever had a job in retail or behind a bar then chances are that you know what it’s like to be abused by random members of the public. So spare a thought for George Osborne, our Chancellor of the Exchequer. Because every day George goes in to work and stoically does his job in the face of the kind of criticism that would break most people. Despite being booed by a crowd of 80,000 at the Paralympics and being voted the most unpopular person in parliament – an achievement which merits a degree of begrudging admiration – George toils away, remaining solemnly obedient to his paymasters.

His loyalty was rewarded in the recent reshuffle when he kept his job in spite of what might appear to the untrained eye to be galloping incompetence. Indeed, a double-dip recession and the sharpest fall in living standards in recent memory might not be conventional signs that the man running the economy is doing his job well, but the people who actually pay George’s salary have every reason to be pleased with his performance.

In 2011 the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that over half of Tory party funding comes from inside the City of London, capital of Britain’s financial services sector. The next biggest contributor after the City is the industrial sector, including the manufacturing and defence industries, which contributes a further 7.5 percent.

{{quote The average UK salary, however, has been stagnating since George took over in 2010 despite a 10 percent increase in the consumer price index }}

It’s not surprising that the combined wealth of the 1,000 richest people in Britain – the majority of whom are from the industrial and financial service sectors – has risen 5 percent in the last year, more than double the rate of inflation, and now stands at an all time high of £414billion. The average UK salary, however, has been stagnating since George took over in 2010 despite a 10 percent increase in the consumer price index – the measure by which the Office for National Statistics calculates the cost of living.

So if we measure George’s success at his job in the same way that we would measure anyone else’s, i.e. his ability to maximise profitability for his employers, then we can see that he is actually doing a fantastic job in some very difficult circumstances. He has battled bravely against public opinion to slash income tax for the rich, flown in the face of conventional wisdom to cut corporation tax for large companies, stood apart from a near consensus on the efficacy of a financial transaction tax and of course continues his thankless mission to reduce benefit entitlements for the disabled and the terminally ill.

It is careful and constant repetition of a well-rehearsed party line that has made this impressive feat possible: that the financial service magnates and industrial tycoons who keep George in employment are the “wealth creators” who will drive the recovery, if only they are liberated from the burden of social responsibility. However, a quick glance under the bonnet of this theory shows it to be problematic.

A City banker – of the same kind that recently brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse – can expect to trouser anything between £500,000 and £10million in annual remuneration. However, a 2009 report by the New Economics Foundation shows how the damaging social effects of the City of London’s financial activities actually destroys £7 of social value for every £1 generated. Conversely, a cleaner in a hospital on minimum wage, by maintaining standards of hygiene and contributing to wider health outcomes, generates £10 in social value for every £1 earnt.

So it would seem that Osborne’s privileging of the already super-privileged may not be the liberating force that will drive the economic recovery. But as long as his paymasters don’t have to give away any of their hard earned billions, everything else will remain a secondary consideration. The rest of us will continue to be ants under George and his friends’ magnifying glass, paying for their malfeasance with our public services and ever decreasing living standards. Try not to be too hard on the chap though; he’s only doing his job.