Funding the Future

Richard Murphy and occasional friends talking about everything you need to know to understand the economy, tax, finance and how we fund our future.

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Episodes

Friday Dec 19, 2025

Is the NHS really in crisis because of money — or because we are asking the wrong question altogether?
In this video, I argue that the central failure of the NHS is not underfunding alone, but the way illness itself has been turned into a consumer product. Chronic conditions now dominate healthcare, patient demand has exploded, and pharmaceutical profits shape treatment pathways, often at the expense of prevention, patient agency, and genuine cures.
I explore why GP consultations have doubled, how medical intervention can itself create harm, and why lifestyle-based prevention is systematically sidelined. I also ask the question no politician wants to answer: who benefits from a system that manages illness rather than reduces it?
This is a political economy critique of healthcare, not an attack on doctors or patients, and it challenges the idea that simply spending more money will necessarily fix the NHS.

Tax is not theft

Thursday Dec 18, 2025

Thursday Dec 18, 2025

Is tax theft? Many people think so — and that belief shapes how we vote, how we treat public services, and how democracy functions.
In this video, I explain why the popular claim “it’s my money, why should the government take it?” is based on a fundamental mistake. Income does not exist before the state. Jobs, wages, money, contracts, and property rights all depend on government systems that come first.
Tax is not punishment. It is not confiscation. It is a macroeconomic tool that stabilises the economy, controls inflation, shapes markets, reduces inequality, and sustains democracy itself.
If you care about public services, economic stability, or democratic accountability, this is the conversation we need to have.

Economics is not about money

Wednesday Dec 17, 2025

Wednesday Dec 17, 2025

Most people think that economics is about money, that government spending is constrained by tax, and that public services must always come second to “balancing the books”.
All of that is wrong.
In this video, I explain why money is not scarce, why governments create it, and why treating money as the central economic constraint has led to unemployment, inequality, wasted lives and environmental damage.
Economics is not about money.
It is about people, resources, care, and planetary limits.
When we put money first, we get injustice.
When we put people first, economics starts to make sense again.
So the real question is simple:
Do we want money in charge – or justice?

Tuesday Dec 16, 2025

Inequality is not an accident. It is not natural. And it is not inevitable.
According to the United Nations’ World Inequality Report, inequality results from deliberate political and institutional choices. This video explains what that means for the UK – and why extreme concentrations of wealth now threaten democracy, climate stability, and social cohesion.
I examine the evidence behind the report, the role Britain has played in designing inequality at home and abroad, and why progressive taxation and redistribution are proven tools for change.
The question is no longer whether alternatives exist.
It is whether our politicians are willing to choose them.

What if growth is over?

Monday Dec 15, 2025

Monday Dec 15, 2025

For 50 years, Western politics has rested on a single promise: growth.
But what if that promise can no longer be kept?
In this video, I ask a question almost no politician dares to face: what happens to democracy when growth flatlines permanently? I explore stagnant wages, finance-driven “growth”, asset bubbles, pensions, public services, and the political risks of a collapsing economic myth.
If growth cannot return, we must change the purpose of the economy itself — or risk losing democracy along with it.

Sunday Dec 14, 2025

Chief executives in the UK and the US are now paid hundreds of times more than the people who actually create value in their companies. This is not innovation or entrepreneurship – it is extraction.
In this video, I explain why extreme executive pay is a driver of inequality, weak productivity, falling morale, and political corruption. I also show how tax can be used not to raise revenue, but to change behaviour – by making excessive pay expensive.
Drawing on proposals I developed for the TUC and current legislation proposed in the United States, I explain how fair pay ratios could be enforced through the tax system, why shareholders – not society – should bear the cost of excess, and why democracy itself is at risk if we do nothing.
Tax exists to shape outcomes. This is one outcome that it must shape.

Is Trump at war with Europe?

Saturday Dec 13, 2025

Saturday Dec 13, 2025

Has Donald Trump effectively declared war on Europe? His recent statements suggest exactly that.
In this video, I explore how Trump’s racist rhetoric, his support for far-right parties, and his attacks on migrants are being used to divide Europe at the very moment inequality and social pressures are rising.
Migration is not destroying Europe. Racism is.
And when racism is normalised, democracy crumbles.
This is the defining political choice of our time: fear and exclusion, or dignity and solidarity.
Which Europe do you want to live in?

Friday Dec 12, 2025

Most people believe the national debt is a danger to our economy. In this video, I explain why that story is wrong. National debt isn’t a burden; it is our money supply. Every pound, dollar, euro or yen in circulation exists because governments run deficits that create the currency we all use.
So if every country is in debt, who owns it? The answer is revealing. More than 80% of global government debt is privately owned — and largely by pension funds, life assurance companies and, ultimately, the world’s wealthiest households. The 1% benefit enormously from the interest payments we all fund.
I also explore what we can do about this: lower interest rates, tax unearned income fairly, and bring more of the money supply under democratic control.
If you want to understand how our economy really works — and why politicians keep getting this wrong — this video is for you.

How to prepare for a crash

Thursday Dec 11, 2025

Thursday Dec 11, 2025

What can ordinary people do if the financial crash many economists fear is coming?
In this video, I explain some practical, calm, and sensible steps to improve your financial resilience without panic and without doom-mongering.
From securing savings and pensions to food security and holding a little cash, these tips help you think ahead when the government won’t.
 

Where does money go in a crash?

Wednesday Dec 10, 2025

Wednesday Dec 10, 2025

Six months on, this video is as relevant as when we first made it, except a crash is probably nearer now. 
 
Every time stock markets drop, headlines say that billions have been lost. But where does that money actually go? If you want to understand crashes, confidence, and the baked bean market (trust me), this one’s for you.

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