The Wiring Diagram

John Hoskyns, like everyone in the 1970s, knew something was very wrong with the British economy. Despite decades of meticulous management, redistribution, and social guarantees, the population was feeling poorer, and their lives more chaotic. The home of the industrial revolution was now home to nationalized companies and a crushing number of rules, regulations, and controls over every aspect of business activity. The land of Adam Smith had become estranged from free enterprise.

No one inside or outside government seemed to know what to do about the situation. Budgets were increased, slashed, then increased again. Unions were fingered as culprits but allowed to grow more powerful.

In 1974 Hoskyns decided to map the causal chains connecting the various economic ailments in Britain. The former software engineer summarized his analysis in his now famous