lenin's voodoo economics

lenny writes:

"The credit crisis, if it is resolved in a capitalist fashion, will see large amounts of public wealth transferred to the private sector. Every previous crisis has resulted in the taxpayers bailing out massive corporations - whether it is Reagan bailing out Chrysler, Clinton bailing out the hedge funds, or Bush bailing out the airlines in 2001. The alternative of public ownership is obviously forbiden by neoliberal ideology, but there isn't a single good reason why nationalisation cannot or should not be carried out extensively."

lenin seems to be missing the rather obvious point that nationalisation across the board would lead to far more of the public's wealth being wasted on companies, since the state would own absolutely everything. Where's the logic in that?

Whilst there may be an isolated case for nationalising Northern Rock - which has found itself in a somewhat unprecedented situation for a bank - wholesale nationalisation of key industries in general would take us right back to the mass unemployment, low productivity and vast waste of the 1970s.

I'm sure when lenin reflects on this properly he will remember the difficulty failing industries got themselves into when the state would come in to prop up sectors that the market couldn't sustain in the long run, thus making the pain a lot bigger and more expensive when they finally had to pull the plug. That type of misery is not something lenin wants British tax payers and workers to return to for one second, thus I'm sure he will withdraw these unfortunate remarks.