What’s it worth?

By Tony Watts - Editor - 15/09/2008

 The thing is, there is a cost to all this. Quite a big one. And we – as a society – have to decide whether we think that the price is worth paying – several hundred million pounds a year. But have we lost sight of something here in counting up the beans?

 

There are public services and facilities that will never show an obvious profit but we, as taxpayers, are happy to fund them. Our hospitals, schools and prisons could easily be put into that bracket.  We spend hundreds of billions on those because they are part of the infrastructure of society.

 

In other strands of life, we find huge amounts of money to improve facilities to enable disabled people to use public buildings and transport (not enough, but that’s another issue). The cost of providing a caring home for someone with severe learning difficulties is massive. We choose to fund these resources because we want to live in a caring society where the weakest and most vulnerable are looked after.

 

Libraries cost money. So too do kids’ playgrounds. We just spent a tidy sum getting our athletes across to Beijing and back.

 

Yes, you can find plenty of accountants who will say that providing these services is not “profitable”. But I would argue that there is financial profit and loss ... and social profit and loss. Paying for good educational facilities creates (we hope) young people who can generate wealth. Paying for good health services means we can all live longer, more productive lives. Paying for prisons keeps criminals off our streets. Libraries encourage literacy. Playgrounds reduce obesity. Team GB helped us put one over on the Aussies. And Post Offices don’t just sell stamps.

 

They provide a financial lifeline to the 5% of adults who haven’t got a bank account as well as several million pensioners who would have to travel miles to find another one to pick up their pension and pay their bills. They are often the only place where financial transactions can be made: the banks, being profit driven, have closed down branches in unprofitable areas, so there are huge swathes of our cities, as well as rural areas, where none is to be found. Post offices also serve as hubs to communities that have often lost their shop, their pub and possibly even their weekly church service.

 

Without post offices, some people, especially the elderly and those living alone, might never meet their neighbours from one week to the next. Take away that lifeline and we irrevocably destroy part of the fabric of our society. We would be a “poorer” place with out them.

 

So is that worth paying for? I think so. So do many others. Sadly most of our politicians don’t agree. Could it be that they have secretaries to do their post, and cars to get about in?