Here’s why there is no economic growth

No, really, this is it:

Vegan burgers that “bleed” like meat have been blocked from being introduced in Britain for four years because of delays and red tape.

Impossible Foods, the Silicon Valley-headquartered company behind the plant-based burger, first applied to launch it in Britain in 2021.

However, its chief executive, Peter McGuinness, said the process had now dragged on for four years, preventing the company from being able to sell its burgers in the UK.

Four years for the permission to put a beanburger into supermarkets. That’s why there is no economic growth. Simples.

We can all make the arguments that GDP isn’t everything and all that. We do so at times ourselves. But GDP growth is people doing new things. Or doing old things in new ways. Sure, fools think that just doing more of the same old thing is that economic growth but that just ain’t right. That’s how the Soviet Union didn’t work, simply processing ever more resources in the same old way. As Bob Solow pointed out 80% of market economy growth in the 20th century came from increases in total factor productivity - doing new things, doing old things in new ways.

The speed of economic growth is thus the speed at which people can do new things, can do old things in new ways. If we’ve a bureaucracy that imposes a four year delay on being able to do a new thing - or perhaps a beanburger is just a new way of doing an old thing - then economic growth is going to be slower. The logic here is very simple and also irrefutable.

So, why’ve we not got much economic growth in the Britain of today? Because we’ve a bureaucracy insistent that no bugger be allowed to do anything new, nothing old in a new manner.

We could also point out that economic growth would wholly and entirely solve Rachel’s Problem With Sums. If we had 3% growth - the sort of level wholly achievable in a free market and capitalist economy as we ourselves showed for many a decade, as other places manage now - then there’s a vast Amazonian gushing river of money heading for the Treasury at current or even lower tax rates. Because, of course, the marginal rate of tax collection from an extra 1% of the economy is very much higher than the average rate of tax collection from the economy as a whole.

So, demolish Marble Arch, rebuild the Tyburn Tree and deal with our stifling bureaucracy properly. We’ve heard of extremists - those unlike us hard headed realists here - who suggest Tower Hill but none of these bureaucracies are posh enough for that privilege.

Or, to be a bit wet about it, if we desire to have economic growth why not get rid of those employed to make sure we cannot have any economic growth?

Tim Worstall

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