From a hive of industry to a home of City parasites

Published: 5 November, 2010

• CAROLINE Goreing writes: “Converting factories and light industrial premises into expensive, luxury homes is part of the problem – not the cure” (We need communities for all... not just the lucky few, October 29).

Finsbury was once a hive of industry, particularly in clothing manufacture. The borough itself was 98 per cent working class. Nearly all the industry has gone; its premises converted into luxury homes for City types, people such as  investment bankers, 100,000 of whom shared £7billion in bonuses this year.

An investment banker manipulates his employer’s money to turn a profit from buying and selling. He or she can “earn” their employer thousands for a few minutes’ “work”.

If we still had clothing workers in Finsbury, they would be lucky to produce £30,000 worth of goods per worker in a year. Their jobs have gone to places such as Vietnam, where goods can be produced far more cheaply. Such is global capitalism.

To add insult to injury, conventional economists – whether classical or Keynesian – regard the movers and shakers as far more productive than clothing workers, simply because they bring in more money.

When an investment banker nets a million pounds over the phone or the web for his employer, that boosts Britain’s gross domestic product by a million pounds. The economy has grown by the same amount, say conventional economists.

Only Marxist economists give due credit to the actual producers of goods and useful services. Movers and shakers, and investment bankers, are simply parasites.

FLORENCE AND IVOR KENNA
Compton Street, EC1