A Case of State Failure
The stark, blackened image of Grenfell Tower is a picture more powerful than a thousand words. But what does the picture tell us? What's the message? The reflexive Left has lost no time telling us its version of what Grenfell Tower represents. It's greed. It's capitalist rapacity. It's profit ahead of people. An example of the trope is provided by Workers World:
Capitalist greed is the root cause of the raging inferno that killed at least 79 residents of Grenfell Tower in London on June 14 and left hundreds homeless. It began and spread through unsafe building materials that even some capitalist countries have barred from use.Capitalist greed the root cause, eh? As they say, never let the facts get in the way of a sensationalist story. But similar views have been cascading down the mountain side from more "respectable" ideological positions. The real blame for Grenfell Tower lies not with capitalist greed, but neoliberalism, whatever that might be conjured to be.
The British government is guilty of neglect and prioritizing cost-cutting above all in maintaining and renovating the high-rise building. Of lesser — or no — importance to the British rulers was ensuring safe public housing for the multinational working-class and poor families, including many immigrants, who lived there.
