Austerity, inequality and debt still a threat | Letters
by Letters from on (#2NWQR)
Guardian readers share their thoughts on the state of the economy
Larry Elliott's attack on economic policy (Falling wages show the economy is still struggling, 8 May) does not go far enough. Real GDP per head just crept back in 2015 to the level it was in 2007. Given that productive resources did not fall in that period, this represents a complete waste. It is worse than that. Real GDP per head shows a very strong trend going back decades.
If we take that trend line as a measure of productive capacity, the waste is much higher; the loss up to 2016 is roughly 25,000 per head. Moreover it is caused by the destructive blood-letting that is austerity. I recall the 2010 Tory slogan that promised to "cut the deficit, not the NHS". Ha!
John Levi
Abingdon, Oxfordshire