Economic decline in Britain

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History

Was there continuous economic decline in Britain in the second half of the 20th century ?

Since the 19th century, because of the Second World War and because of the wall street crash, Britain’s economy could really slipped downwards. Was there continuous economic decline in Britain in the second half of the 20th century ? In questions like this the answer is not just yes or no but an answer in between. This issue is really divided between two groups of people, ones who think there was economic decline and ones who agree that there wasn’t. For many historians there was economic decline because of things such as low productivity of industries or because the second world war. For others, Britain’s economy was really stable and peaceful because of low unemployment and low inflation. There are arguments for both points of view, first we will see what could have made continuous economic decline and then what could have sustained economic success.

Many events can brings us to the conclusion that there was economic decline. The beginning of this decline was certainly the First World War who really damaged Britain in all the sectors. The first thing that helped the decline was the lack of competitiveness of Britain’s industries. They failed to develop during the industrial revolution, they kept the old machines and so weren’t efficient any more. These industries also had a tendency in short-termism, which is concentrating on immediate profit at the expense of long term security. These industries had low productivity because of the fact that they had old machines and low investments they failed to develop.

After the war, Britain had debts and had seen its political position in Europe lowered, so it tried to maintain a costly world role. The government brought the welfare state and nationalization, which was not priceless and certainly wasn’t worth it. The government was spending too much money in the Korean war, trying to have the atomic bomb and in general, and so there was less money left for other things which could have help Britain. It could have helped the industries for example, but they didn’t and instead they laughed at their own lack of competitiveness. After the war, Britain had to reconstruct all the houses destructed by the bombs but it failed in investing in housing. Again there is the idea of short-termism which is really present, the government wasn’t thinking of the future. Three Prime Ministers, Macmillan, Wilson and Heath set a great deal about the need to modernize Britain, which wasn’t modern due to nostalgia, people didn’t wanted change. All three failed in achieving their goal.

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Britain’s government failed in keeping exports high. Between 1950 and 1970 Britain’s shipbuilding went from 37% to less than 4%. Britain’s car industries also really declined because they were old and because of their lack of competitiveness against Japanese industries which were really efficient. Also, British failed to see this decline, they took the habit of joking about it, and so didn’t correct this problem until 1979.

Since Britain’s industries were really not efficient due to outdated machinery and bad management, making a product in Britain took much longer than anywhere else. There was bad social relation between workers ...

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