The Great Transfer - Economical Pathos

There's a lot of anger at the moment surrounding obscene profits which companies are making; Shell earning enough money every minute to fit solar-collection cells onto every home in Leeds and the like, and people are calling for Windfall taxes on the companies which are getting ridiculously rich from our misery.

It's understandable, however, it's insanely naive; companies exist to make obscene amounts of money and make their investors fat and wealthy, that's the POINT. Welcome to Capitalism! It's been happening now for decades and it's only since we've entered an inevitable period of recession that people are calling for this.

Yeah, that's what we need; to take more money from companies when it's hard to make a profit at all. Pure FUCKING GENIUS?! Why aren't you running the country?

Well, because you'd ruin it, that's why; energy companies such as British Gas make an excellent point in defending their profits when they point out that the Government are requiring them to invest billions of pound into improving our energy infrastructure in the next ten years. Because, guess what, we've entirely fucked over ourselves, here in the UK! We've not built enough power stations to keep up with the increased demand and now we're heavily reliant on France.

I'll say that again; The UK is heavily reliant on France.

Back in the 70s/80s, we were laughing at the French when they went through a similar period of energy poverty (when the only reason we were doing fine was because of the North Sea gas reserves... which are now gone) and now it's their turn because our Governments have made no effort to improve the situation.

Nuclear power is the obvious answer to our energy dependency but we don't have the expertise! Almost no-one in the UK has the knowledge of Nuclear Physics required to build safe, modern nuclear plants now.

Which is why we need France.

So we need to not be entirely at the behest of a foreign nation, hence the investment required by the Government. Yes, the companies making this profit are still earning ridiculous amounts of money from us, but again THAT'S THE POINT! Capitalism, baby! No matter what you do someone is earning money from you. It's just that energy has become a panicky topic now.

The same goes for Pharmaceutical companies. Some people have suggested that we just force them to earn less money so life-saving treatments are affordable, which is rubbish; all they'll do is work on more profitable drugs and leave specialist treatments behind, ruining the entire argument.

The sad fact is that some treatments are too expensive for our NHS as it is, and to afford more will drive up taxes and prescription costs. All that people are campaigning for is more taxation against themselves to save people's lives... which, when I put it like that, seems pretty noble!