Larry Elliott has an article I want to signpost in the Guardian this morning. It's worth reading in full, and not just because he's another Green New Dealer who is still signalling that all we had to say is still the only alternative economic show in town. As he puts it:
The decision to embrace the discipline of the global marketplace has proved disastrous for parties of the centre left. They did well enough during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when cheap imported goods flooded in from China, but were bereft of ideas when the global economy hit the wall in 2008. Where there would once have been a plan to re-regulate capitalism there was instead an intellectual vacuum.
Quite so. And as he adds:
There are some obvious lessons to be drawn from this. The first is that the mainstream parties need to come up with policies that do things for people rather than do things to people. The record shows that the managed capitalism of the cold war delivered better results than the unmanaged capitalism since.
Exactly. Again, as he says:
People want now what they have always wanted: a job, decent pay, a pension, a roof over their heads and a sense that their children will be better off than they are. They can't understand why the global economy can't deliver today what nation states could deliver half a century ago.
We can still do that. It just requires a Green New Deal. And if we don't? Back to Larry:
There is one final lesson. If mainstream parties don't come up with the answers, the evidence is that voters will look elsewhere for solutions. The rise of populism explodes the myth that they have nowhere else to go.
That's the fear. And it's very real. So the real question is, when will the left of centre listen, take note and act?
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[…] less risk if the funds created are used to pay for housing, the NHS, education and fair pensions (those things that we enjoyed half a century ago that we cannot apparently have now). And yet the creditor will apparently unquestioningly fund a war and not feel the same way about […]
This is exactly why a new ‘centrist’ party that has learned none of these lessons is the last thing this country needs.
Agreed
On the other hand, given that none of the other parties have grasped the spend and tax arguments (and show no sign of seriously trying to), a new party that did would be a very interesting proposition. And might just put pressure on one or other of the existing parties to do the same.
I say that with no special insight or connections but maybe premature to judge them at this stage
“a job, decent pay, a pension, a roof over their heads and a sense that their children will be better off than they are”
There has to be a move away from consumerism (on which the “global” economy is based) – cos we won’t have a planet to enjoy if there is not.
“better off” can mean a whole range of things – not just the ability to buy more gadgets, alternatives could include warm comfortable housing, countryside worthy of the name i.e. with wild animals in it, a coast line and beaches that are worth visiting, unpolluted riviers.
Labout needs to find a way of expressing the above in a way that has meaning to “ordinary citizens” (I’m hesitant to use the word “ordinary” – within everybody there is something extraordinary – waiting to come out). Sounding like a broken record – the Green new Deal.
We all need enough stuff
Enough is less than most think it is
After that, as I argue in The Courageous State, it’s about emotional, intellectual and spiritual well being
Growth in those areas can involve paid for services but it need not burn our futures
Why can’t we have what we had 50 years ago? My wife was in education from the mid 70’s. It wasn’t long before the cuts began and for about the last 20 years of her employment the refrain was always the same: “we have to make savings”. I know it wasn’t simple, but it always seemed like once upon a time we could afford more staff, more books and so on when we were poorer, but now that the country is richer (that growth in GDP heading upwards toward infinity) we can no longer afford them.
Which as we both know makes no sense, at all
Very interesting article. Larry Elliott always maintains a calm outlook in the face of the economic stupidity and horror of modern times. That’s OK, but I sometimes wish that The Guardian could express a bit of caustic outrage, along the lines of Bill Mitchell. But then, under the guidance of Viner and Freedland (I excuse Larry Elliott from this criticism), what deviation from the neoliberal orthodoxy can you expect?
I write from New Zealand, where MMT has no traction, and we are led by Jacinda Adern, who is a Tony Blair in drag. Please keep up your part in the MMT conversation. Perhaps it will one day break through.