Has high-tech industry got a role to play in the reduction of the deficit? George Osborne, struggling with the practical difficulties of making the cuts which will aloow him to reduce the deficti, might ponder on this as an alternative to grinding the faces of the poor.
Of course, most of us think the bankers should make the biggest contribution to deficit reduction on the not unreasonable grounds that they caused the deficit, but the bankers don't seem to agree - preferring to splash their cash on their bonuses.
And Osborne, a Tory toff, has it in his DNA that when the country needs a sacrifice the poor are the ones who must make it.
Heaven forfend that a banker should be made to skimp on his Bordeaux and brandy.
But before resurrects the Poor Law, perhaps Osborne should look at America where the CEOs of IBM, Micron, Motorola, EMC, Intel and Applied Materials have told the government that they can cut a trillion dollars off the deficit over the next decade.
The way they'd do it is to get the US government to buy more of their companies' products and services to implement a number of reforms. These include:
. consolidating data centres
. adopting online self-service for government agencies
. streamlining procurement
. deploying analytics software to detect benefit fraud.
According to the New York Times the consultants McKinsey published a similar report last year also saying $1trn could be saved over a decade.
Interesting that the Yanks also see benefits for the poor as a target. When in doubt blame the feckless, extravagent, self-indulgent starving masses, eh what?
They should just put a tax on luxury toys depending on their desirability vs actual usefulness.
All Apple products and the Prius' (Pri-i ?) get the top rate +100% tax rate doubling the price then it works down from there.
Of course were they still made Sinclair or Amstrad products might qualify for a negative tax rate :-)