Happiness Factors

This is just too insane to be made up! My Gov (well it's not really mine as I didn't vote for it and certainly didn't vote for the policies they are dreaming up) are looking at measuring the nations happiness or well-being. To do this they need items to measure. What do you think they can use to indicate just how we are doing? Things like:

• Time taken to get to work in the morning
• Price of public transport
• A public transport system
• Money left at the end of the week
• Elimination of dependency on criminal activity of the financial institutions
• Reduction in the number of types of insurance
• Improvement in after-sales service when you buy something (maybe an after-sales service would be a start)

Some of these items are crazy and have no connection with reality. Are there other items?

Beware of the Quick Win

There are rumours floating around that the London Mayor or some advisers are thinking about the ending the Freedom Pass for pensioners. Whilst initially this may make financial sense; in the long run it's a big mistake.

The freedom pass allows eligible retired people the chance to travel for free on the London transport system. There are approximately 1million freedom passes issued to pensioners. 

Whilst removing the freedom pass will save a small fraction of revenue for London transport in the long run it will actually be detrimental to the economy. When pensioners travel into the centre they visit museums (buy tea and coffee there), galleries and shops. In short they spend money. The pensioners that have the pass do not have a huge amount of disposable income. By removing the freedom pass we would effectively be placing a 'tax' on pensioners visiting the centre. A majority would simply not bother to go to the centre and those that do would be unlikely to spend money (or as much as they would do if they had free travel). The net effect of removing the freedom pass would be to remove needed money being spent in the capital's museums and stores.

A more troubling issue is that pensioners who's income is very minimal would be loath to travel unless necessary. This would have a negative psychological effect which could result in increased ailments putting a further strain on the NHS.

I am not an old age pensioner, but I see it as a mistake morally and financially to remove the freedom pass. We pay a lot to travel on our transport system. More than anywhere else in the world. I would hope that some of the money I spend goes to subsidise the transport for pensioners.

Creative accounting?

Our Government has come up with an excellent idea and it's guaranteed success. The Government will fund start-ups aimed at getting people into work. The way this will be achieved is by the companies employing unemployed people and getting a bonus from the Government for the effort. This is indeed a self-perpetuating business (a business whose business is to employ people) and will ensure total employment. Success will be achieved when a start-up employs 65 Million people there will be no unemployed people and all will be working in the private sector. The next logical step is to rename the company as a financial institution (the core business model remains the same) and we should be out of the problems we are in.

Museums - going backwards

A worrying news item from Channel 4 concerning the Tate Modern. It appears that there is the real possibility that this museum (and I fear others) will start charging entrance fees if the arts funding is cut. This will be a big mistake. As any good business knows the key thing is to entice potential customers in first. Charging for entrance to museums will guarantee fewer patrons. Or, perhaps a model of free entrance for UK tax payers and a fee for non-UK tax payers could be implemented (the cost if implementing the system would be a 1-off).

During these hard times we need to provide inspiration and opportunity to all our citizens and not only to those that can afford to pay for it.