Is the Conservative answer to a national crisis socialism for the rich?.(UK)

The Conservatives have used a huge level of state intervention and some smart-arse commentators have pointed out that their level of government spending is now much greater than was in the Labour Party manifesto. The same manifesto that they said would be economic suicide and turn us into Venezuela and so on.

Whilst I support heavy Government intervention to deal with the crisis, there are aspects of this which are not good. Its a kind of 'socialism' which reflects Conservative priorities. homeowners get mortgage holidays, businesses get subsidies but this is a top-down form of economic life support.

Nothing has been done for renters so that landlords are still legally entitled to rent even when they are not legally entitled to pay their mortgage. Businesses get subsidised for their staff's wages though have no obligation to actually pay those wages. Basically, use 'big government' to protect the wealthy first and everyone else is an afterthought.

Northwest · M

In the US, there's a half-assed attempt, through the stimulus package, if I understand it correctly. Landlords, who owe the banks themselves, will be given a break, if they do not evict people who cannot pay their rent.

In Seattle, the city already acted, and prevented evictions, at least for the next 3 months (I think this may be state wide now).

The problem though, is that this marks an individual (or a family), as bad risk. A better solution, would be to give everyone a break: landlords and renters, without making it specific to preventing evictions.