Nobody wanna plant the corn

It may come as a surprise to some readers of this column, but I have a strange affection for reggae music, and there is a lyric by a man called Anthony B (no idea of his real name) which strikes me as particularly apposite to many western democracies, notably Great Britain. The lyric (which I believe goes back to an old Jamaican island saying) goes:

Nobody wanna plant the corn

Everybody wanna raid the barn

Doesn’t that thought sum up where many of these countries are heading? Ever more tax takers, and ever fewer tax payers? The figures I have recently seen for Britain suggest that we have flipped over the halfway mark, meaning there are more who are net recipients of governmental largesse than there are net tax contributors. I haven’t seen figures for other nations, but I would suspect - from observation and anecdotal evidence - that several other European countries are at or near the same level.

It’s difficult to see how that trend can be sustainable. If the number who want to raid the barn keeps increasing and the number who want to plant the corn continues decreasing, then there comes a point where there won’t be enough corn in the barn for the raiders when they come. In simple terms, the raiders can’t take more corn out of the barn than the planters put in. So as the planters decrease in number - because they no longer see the point, as whatever they produce is grabbed by the raiders - the amount of corn available will eventually become insufficient to satisfy all those who want it. So what happens then? I’m not an economist (neither would I claim to be, unlike some others….), but it seems to me that the answer to that question is rather more basic logic (which I do have claims to understand) than economics: the standard of living of the whole population - planters and raiders - diminishes, and, I guess, ultimately, something close to national bankruptcy ensues.

I know I am simplifying a bit, because I am not really taking account of an ageing population, which does of course - quite apart from the factors I am considering here - increase the demand pattern somewhat, but inherently, a society which fails to maintain a level of benefit of working over not working is essentially not sustainable. Once the belief that raiding the barn is a better life than planting the corn becomes established, then the rocky road to state control of lives opens up wider and wider. We are familiar with the politicians’ love of the concept that “those with the broadest shoulders must take the heaviest burden”, but bit by bit, those shoulders will become progressively narrower, and ultimately there will be none left to carry the burden. Is that the meaning of equity? Just to finish with Anthony B again:

My Lord, I have to pray on my way

Dem never realise with a little cooperation

Wi coulda unify relieve the frustration

Instead dem want to ride upon dem bredda back

No tears or cares if him even did stop or flop