Seems like a whole bunch of folks have forgotten how a healthy consumer economy and the multiplier effect work .... the nips and the kruats seem to have gotten it right, and with a few occasional glitches, mainly the result of many other economies screwing up, they do damn well. A helluva a lot better than the allies who kicked their asses in the War. Pay a man a decent wage ... oops, forgot about women again
... and she will spend about 90% of it ... on houses, appliances, cars, food etc. The stores wouldn't be closing ... houses wouldn't be deteriorating ... but no, British businessmen, and their counterparts over here and in the US would rather move jobs to places where labor is cheap, and to hell with the economy in their own country. The only allegiance they acknowledge is to themselves ... greedy, senseless bastards who look only at the short term. You can't have a healthy economy without a well-paid working class (these are the folks who pay taxes). You can't have a strong retail sector if the only work available is at the burger flipping level, or if you import foreign workers prepared to work for peanuts. Classical economics ain't rocket science; it's common sense.