No, before lawyers jump in, I'm not suggesting Jonathan Ross has endorsed my forthcoming book - The Courageous State. But he said this in an interview published in the Guardian today:
Ross has been generous with his time, and is still talking while the photographer is trying to get him to focus. But all he wants to do is chat. He talks about food shortages, the global economic crisis and what the world holds for his children's generation. "Here's the problem we've got at the moment. Capitalism hasn't worked, socialism will never work, but we're still a commercially driven culture. We need to find a new model, a new way of encouraging people to develop stuff that isn't just based on individual personal reward, and at the same time there's got to be some kind of meritocracy, otherwise people won't invest their time in it… So, if you're 20 and you've got great ideas, we'll use them; and if you haven't got great ideas, we'll find something else for you to do, but you'll all be looked after. There'll be some kind of utopian socialism… almost Fabian socialism." He genuinely believes that? "To be honest, I'm slightly pessimistic that it will ever happen, but if it doesn't, the human race is going to die out because there will be too many people to feed and there won't be enough money to go around."
It sounds to me like I should send him a copy soon - because I think the narrative to support this vision is possible - which is why I'm writing the book.
But it's unlikely to be out in September now - the edit is taking longer than expected.
Trouble is after the edit it now reads more and more like a 90,000 word blog with fewer typos. Still, given 15,000 came here one day in August I guess something is working about that style.
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I hope you’ll be pointing out that, unlike with commodity-backed currency, with fiat currency such as we have now there’s no need for any such thing as there not being enough money to go round.
BB
There’s plenty money to go round, Jonathan. In fact, under the present system of money, there’s as much money as we can borrow.
Lack of money certainly isn’t the problem. The problem is that it is mostly obtained by the very richest in society who go to great pains to make sure they keep hold of the biggest share of it.
Poverty and want, if we desired it, could be eradicated almost overnight. The thing is, all too few of us do desire it and there needs to be a huge re-education in social justice and eligatarian values.
Until that happens, nothing is going to change.
No doubt there is much on tax, and on that topic I wondered if you saw (and can understand better than I do, which isn’t saying much) the piece by Krugman on his blog August 7, 2010 ‘Tax Cuts And Spending (Very Wonkish)’, and also that Peter Diamond has just co-written a paper (subscription free) ‘the case for progressive tax’ available on his site. If those know about these or are uninterested, spool back in time and don’t read this notelet.
Yes, good to see someone as high profile as Ross voicing the obvious and joining the growing band of those of us who know where the neo-liberal dream is taking the world, Richard, despite the constant stream of hype and spin that tries to convince us otherwise. On which point, this is worth reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/rick-perry-economic-mirage?intcmp=239
So much for the Texas economic miracle, hey! Good for the rich and powerful. Shite for everyone else. Not that that stops Tories here in the UK wanting to emulate such “progress”. Ah, but I’m forgetting – they’re only in politics to advance the interests of the rich and powerful.
Quite. We should be looking at North Dakota as an example, not Texas. See http://www.opednews.com/articles/North-Dakota-s-Economic-M-by-Ellen-Brown-110903-850.html
BB
given the amount he is paid (£6m i think i saw) perhaps he would like to volunteer to pay more tax like some of those abroad?