Jeremy Corbyn in the Age of Algorithms

An economic philosophy based around the worker, and the `dignity of labour` may have been appropriate for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but in the Age of Algorithms it is degenerate and unsustainable. Because of the ubiquitous computer, labour has become a commodity, and commodities compete on price. Imposing the higher costs of artificially supporting labour within a single political jurisdiction will only lead to production moving elsewhere. Talent alone generates wealth. It is welcome everywhere, and talented individuals will also move away if excessive demands are made on them to support the preferred voters of a failing democracy. These ideas are covered in the book I wrote with David Lesperance: Flight of the Golden Geese. See www.flightofthegoldengeese.com.

It is pointless bleating about the unfairness of it all. The die is cast and there is nothing anyone can do about it. And there is no point in resorting to moral arguments, which is what Syriza did in Greece. The surge in support for Corbyn is the same delusion transplanted to the UK. Unlike many in the hysterical right wing press, that say Corbyn cannot win a general election, I beg to differ. His is a philosophy designed for losers, and Britain is full of losers (those who have only untalented labour or unemployability to offer), who if organised can certainly win a majority, just like Alexis Tsipras did in Greece. And a fat lot of good that did them: turkeys voting for Christmas. Raising a democratic majority is no defence against economic inevitability. `Nature is not immoral, when it had no pity for the degenerate`.

Corbyn and his mates, just like Tsipras, believe that emulating King Canute they can demand the tides retreat. All they are doing on the beach of reality is sticking their heads in the sand, to demand that the world changes, and the unfairness must go away. The will of the people will make it so! The Greeks eventually learned that if they bend over with their heads in the sand eventually they are all going to get buggered. Along with everyone who stays to face the consequences. Greece is facing a major brain drain … the very talent it needs to generate wealth. With Corbyn’s nineteenth century economics Britons are sleepwalking towards the same doom-laden destiny.

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