Working our way around strikes

In the end, we come to accept strikes as part of the food and parcel of everyday life in the United Kingdom. So, what do we do? We try to work our way around them and move on. Once again, waiting lists at the NHS and missed schooling days will happen not because of the lockdown measures impelemented during the pandemic but because of strikes of very crucial segments of the economy. NHS strikes? Patients without treatment. School strikes?

Students falling behind in their studies. Most British education centres were downgraded this year. No surprise there. It was bound to happen after what has been happening since 2020 and there is more to expect in terms of lack of schooling. Children at home or wandering around getting into trouble, parents struggling to manage between work and caring after their children and, if this wasn't enough, all those jobs prospects for their children getting farther and farther away because lack of schooling means lack of qualifications to have acces to job opportunities.

There is no leveling up if people don't have what it takes to get better jobs and it could well be said that strikes ensure that the new generations will miss opportunities in the medium term and long term. If somebody is making less than 20,000 Pound a year, we can understand that they need more to get by, but when somebody is getting 59,000 on average there is no justification to keep asking for more when the country is struggling with public debt out of control. Trade Union representatives said it themselves: trains drivers are getting 59,000 Pound a year on average. They are thinking merely about themselves and they are forgetting the hundreds of thousands that are not so lucky, the ones who are going to be harshly hit by transport strikes. No transport, no work when people need transport to go to work and especially when a day out of work means no income whatsoever. They say that politicians are out of touch with the rest of society. Well, high earning train drivers are equally out of touch with the rest of society and because of it society as a whole stands to pay a very high price for it.

Strikes hit the have-nots harder. Billions of pounds will be lost, taxes will not be collected, and social misery will spread faster than ever. With every year turning the Goodwill Season into a confrontation season the feel good factor evaporates. 

The expression Capitalism creates wealth and Socialism spreads misery is truer than ever before. Of course we must support decent incomes for all, but we must reject opportunists driven by greed that hide their greed behind legitimate concers to justify the unjustifiable.