Friday marks five years since Britain left the European Union on Jan. 31, 2020. People and businesses are still wrestling with the economic, social and cultural aftershocks.

Summary

Five years after Brexit, its economic and political effects are still unfolding.

Trade with the EU has become more expensive and complex, with mid-sized businesses struggling the most.

UK economic growth is projected to be 4% lower long-term, and new trade deals haven’t offset EU losses.

While public opinion has turned against Brexit, rejoining the EU remains unlikely.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer aims to improve relations but won’t re-enter the single market, as both sides cautiously rebuild ties.

  • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    I always think, capitalism is like fire.

    Left unchecked, it will burn everything down.

    But properly harnessed, it can feed, heat and transport people.

    • FundMECFSResearchEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      How would you design a system where capitalism actually works.

      Because all major capitalist system are currently leaving a lot of people behind, in their feeding, transporting, and warming…

      • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        It depends on what you consider capitalism.

        Suppose you would take the system we have today, put all the stock of every company in a big fund and give everyone equal voting rights in, and profits from, the fund.

        That would be a very anarcho-communist world. All economic power would be with the people, not the state, evenly divided, so no one would be richer than anyone else.

        But others would call it capitalism because it would be the exact same system we have today.

        • FundMECFSResearchEnglish
          1·
          2 hours ago

          That would not be capitalism at all though.

          Your big fund is basically the equivalent of making every company government owned and turning thr government into a direct democracy.

          Then there wouldn’t really be a concept of ownership of companies at all… Like there currently is in capitalism, because if everyone owns it, no one owns it, we don’t own the government…

          • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            4 minutes ago

            No it would not be even close to being equivalent to gov+dd, because the government and fund would be totally separate power structures.

            You could modify the scheme so that dividends and profits only go to retirees, which would make it a giant retirement fund.

            Some people argue China is capitalist and others argue it is socialist or communist.

            Truth is, these are all 19th century debates on archaic terms. Every developed country today has a mixed-mode economy with some form of capitalism combined with some form of communism.

            It’s more fruitful to discuss how we harness the power of each system in a way that benefited humanity.