HS2 is making Britain an international laughing stock

I've been using the term "post-developed" for a while now, mostly as a crude joke. However, unfortunately I think as time is going on it is becoming more and more apt to describe certain western economies.

Perhaps something along the lines of "when a society shifts from long-term investment to short-term cost saving, it is at risk of becoming a post-developed economy."

So much of the UK's decision making seems centred around how "we are so great" (cough EU is stopping us from achieving our potential cough) rather than "we need to invest to be able to compete."

Even Thatcherism, as toxic and awful as that was, was centred around pushing the economy forward to a new level of (horribly misguided) development.

Of course, I'll caveat that I am severely under-educated on these topics, but it is a running theme I'm starting to see emerge.

Conservatives can't stand the thought of tax dollars being used to help people. Those are for tax cuts for the wealthy!