Funding the Future

A survey has suggested that young people in the UK are much more dissatisfied with their lives than equivalent teenagers are in other countries. Could it be that our economic model is depriving them of hope, opportunity and the chance of well-being?

Labour was built on the basis of a proud left-of-centre tradition that was based on support for working people and a belief in the power of the state to build well-being for everyone, and not just a few. But that’s gone. Just like the Tories, it is now dedicated to the cult of the individual and is opposed to the state and all it can do for us. The question is, what can we do about this?

Economics always seem to be written from the perspective of the City of London. Even Labour now seems to only exist to serve its interests. But what would economics look like if it was written from beyond the City’s walls? The Mile End Road runs from the City to the East End of London – the traditional home of its new migrant populations. And at its destination is the place where the Peasants’ Revolt ended in 1381. Its history and its location is precisely why Danny Blanchflower and I call ourselves the Mile End Road economists – creating a perspective on economics that few in the profession dare promote. #uk #money #economic #politics #bank #government #tax #investment #share #business #blogger #labourparty #kierstarmer

Labour claims it has a “black hole” of £22 billion to fill in the government’s finances. They should stop making a fuss. Doing so would be easy. There are at least six – and maybe more – ways to do it.

Two months into office as prime minister Keir Starmer is claiming that we should anticipate ‘more pain’ under his leadership. That’s unsurprising. So far, he has provided no clue as to what he will ‘change’, despite that being the theme of his election campaign. Instead, he says he will struggle to deliver what the Tories promised. As early admissions of failure go, that is spectacular.

People like to claim they have a gross income out of which their tax is paid. But is that gross income ever really theirs when it comes with the legal obligation to pay tax attached to it, meaning that the tax owing always belongs to the government? And what does that do to the idea of taxpayer money?

Land value taxation is a 19th century idea that has very rarely been used. Its proponents say it is the great unavoidable tax that could potentially replace all other taxes. The problem is it is based on assumptions that might be fine in theory, but which would be incomprehensible in practice – and that’s no way to impose a tax charge.

Politicians like to pretend that we live in a binary world. It’s us or them, they suggest. But the real world is really not like that, so are they doing us a massive disservice by pretending that politics has to work that way?

You’d think politicians should be good at decision making, but they aren’t. Of all the options available to them they usually choose prevarication when there are usually five other alternatives they could use. As a result our politicians are paralysing our political processes.

I’ve been creating social media content since 2006, whether it’s been blogs, tweets or now YouTube and TikTok videos. There’s only ever been one reason for doing so, and that has been to change the world in whatever way I can for those who get a less than fair deal from it.