As things stand, the UK’s intergenerational spending commitments – healthcare, welfare, pensions and education – are set to bankrupt the country. A new report by Miles Saltiel, released this week by the ASI, models the future of Britain’s finances under different spending scenarios, and shows that if after 2015 the government returns to high spending, the UK could face a fiscal catastrophe on an Irish scale by 2019.
The report outlines the spending commitments that the state currently has and advocates a radical new approach to the state-citizen relationship, which is the only way to avoid state insolvency in the near future. Unless people in the UK are willing to reevaluate their expectations of what the state should provide, we will reach a crisis point. The report identifies healthcare as a key area that huge savings can be made in without compromising the quality or provision of health services.
As Eamonn says: “We cannot keep voting ourselves generous pensions, healthcare and other benefits and vainly hope that our children will happily pick up the bill. It's time we got realistic on the scale of the problem, forced politicians to fess up to the future costs of new policies, and brought in rules to make sure that future generations cannot be saddled with the cost of our extravagances.”
You can download it free here.
