Labour’s Lost Opportunity
Many of Britain’s problems can be explained by the fact that 1% of the population owns more wealth than 70% combined. Despite its break with failed Tory economics, the budget did little to tackle this obscene inequality.
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Rae Deer is an economist and freelance writer.
Many of Britain’s problems can be explained by the fact that 1% of the population owns more wealth than 70% combined. Despite its break with failed Tory economics, the budget did little to tackle this obscene inequality.
By refusing to borrow or raise taxes, Labour is betting all its chips on growth to fund public spending — with no credible plan to stimulate it.
The Bank of England’s decision to hike interest rates is part of a plan to make workers pay for the cost of living crisis by driving up unemployment and driving down wages.
For decades, politicians justified funnelling money to the rich by arguing it produces more wealth for everyone else. The evidence is now overwhelming – we were scammed.
By hitting workers with historic tax increases while leaving wealth untouched, Jeremy Hunt has ensured that the rich will remain insulated from the cost of living catastrophe.
Truss and Kwarteng have rowed back on the top tax rate, but they’re still lifting the bankers’ bonus cap and threatening cuts to public services and benefits. We need to push for a much bigger change in direction.
While Kwasi Kwarteng weighs up ditching the bankers’ bonus cap, normal workers are told to show ‘restraint’ and quietly accept a decade of flatlining wages. It’s all designed to keep wealth moving in its current direction: upward.
Energy giants are expected to make £170 billion in excess profit in the next two years. By ruling out a higher windfall tax, Liz Truss is defining her premiership from the offset: more for the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Despite claiming to be a ‘regulator’, Ofgem’s main job is to protect the profits of private energy companies – even when their prices are driving millions of working-class people towards poverty.
The media is talking up differences between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak over tax cuts, but the Tory leadership candidates are united on the main policy response to the cost-of-living crisis: suppressing workers’ wages.
When millions are going hungry and a few companies are raking in record profits, the ‘free market’ is obviously failing – and the case for price controls is clearer than ever.
From basic goods to housing, debt costs and tax hikes, our economy is rigged: life is more expensive when you’re poor.
With millions facing poverty, Labour should be demanding that the government goes much further than the weak measures announced so far – instead, they’re trying to cast those measures as irresponsible.
Under capitalism, technological progress will always benefit the rich first and society later – if we want technology to address the major problems of our time, we need it to be shaped by workers.
Non-dom status is a scam designed to help the elite to amass obscene wealth. By overseeing a tax system riddled with loopholes, Rishi Sunak isn’t just helping his wife – he’s helping his class.
In the middle of a cost of living crisis, the Tory government has made Britain the only major economy to hike taxes on workers. The reason is simple – they are determined to protect the profits of the rich.
Amid the cost of living crisis, April’s National Insurance hike will squeeze workers while the wealth of the rich continues to accumulate – it’s time to demand tax justice.
Inflation is the highest it’s been in 30 years, while pay is below 2008 levels. There’s only one way to avoid becoming worse off: joining a union and standing up for yourself.
In 1932, philosopher Bertrand Russell made the case for work to be fairly shared out, so no one had to be to either unemployed or overworked. 90 years later, his argument has only grown more relevant.
The Bank of England is eyeing an interest rate hike to fight inflation – a policy that will further curb workers’ bargaining power in the middle of a cost of living crisis.