Lowering VAT
All the talk today is about Britain lowering its VAT rate. This is meant to stimulate us into jumping out of seats, driving down to one of the generic high streets full of the same generic shops and filling our cars and houses full of crap. It seems the answer to all our economic woes is for debt laden consumers to go out and buy more stuff.
I can see a reduction in prices helping to stimulate things a bit, but one of the things I really noticed coming back to the UK is the vast amount of out of town shopping areas that have sprung up. All selling the same rubbish. How much of this do we really need? At some point perhaps we could all just stop buying junk, buy food only and let the economy adjust and the environment breathe a sigh of relief.
As for me I'll renew my Christmas Manifesto and my Pledge to buy hand made again this year.