I've been up since dawn, writing. The result may be a long read at some time: it's not done yet. But these fell out along the way:
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Did you not reflect on the terrible events in Reading?.. it’s not all about right v left and socialism v capitalism
I reflect on a very great many things I do not comment on here
What has happened in Reading sounds awful.
But you do know how many people have died of Covid-19, don’t you?
This blog – in case you didn’t know Faye – taps into loads of good ideas that if used would have meant that that amount of death would not have happened, we’d have had public services that would have been able to cope with it and a Government competent enough to deal with it.
It also has ideas to reduce the pain that is happening in the present and future economy and reduce further deaths from a second spike, plus also educate all the children who currently are unable to go to school because both teachers and parents justifiably lack confidence in the Government’s handling of this pandemic.
All this is what Richard wakes up thinking about on a daily basis as well as those who come here. Don’t you think that that is enough?
And, for all you know, the awful events in Reading may be a result of public services being underfunded because the useful ideas and alternatives explored in this blog are often not applied.
We’ve had chronic under-funding of ALL public services since 2010. We know that this has undermined police and security force ability to deliver secure communities, whether from terrorist attacks or preventing gang members from knifing each other to death in London.
Inferring that Richard’s post this morning is not relevant therefore is just plain wrong.
Thanks PSR
The point for me is that this is not a diary – or os, very rarely so. And it’s not a free for all on all issues. So I have to be selective
Tweet 3 essentially says that taxation can (and does) pay for spending.
For sure you can achieve your spending goals in other ways, but collecting funds from taxation is a big way of doing it.
No, it says we need to redistribute
And that means taking away the wealth of the richest
Tax does that
Would it be appropriate to also say that tax also helps us to maintain spending (investment) as it controls inflation until the spending objectives have been met?
Yes
John Turning.
I see taxation as destroying/removing money from the economy to create the “space” for more government spending.
Government doesn’t need the tax in order to spend. It can just create the money.
What the government DOES need to do is make sure that there isn’t too much money in the economy.
As the government is constantly spending into the economy on public services, it needs to be constantly removing money from the economy at the same time.
Government does this by permanently destroying money (taxation) or removing money from the economy for a fix period of time through Bonds.
Taxing those with the most money the most allows people with less money to pay less tax and so hold onto more of their money.
The need for money to be “removed” remains constant, it’s who it comes from that is the variable. That is how tax can be used to redistribute wealth.
John you are wrong you need to buy a copy of Stephanie Kelton’s book “The Deficit Myth” to understand the full arguments why I’m saying this. The price is reasonable.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deficit-Myth-Modern-Monetary-Economy/dp/1529352525/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6MHX82W0RPSH&dchild=1&keywords=the+deficit+myth+stephanie+kelton&qid=1591793162&sprefix=The+Deficit+Myth%2Caps%2C252&sr=8-1
Or, if you fancy buying “local” and not giving money to amazon:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-deficit-myth/stephanie-kelton/9781529352528
Or if you prefer giving your money to someone other than amazon (and why wouldn’t you)
https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Stephanie-Kelton/The-Deficit-Myth–Modern-Monetary-Theory-and-How-to-Build-a-Better-Economy/24893726
Bevan, writing, “Poverty, Property and Democracy'” published in the 1952 collection of his short essays, “In Place of Fear”, said, “It was not the Treaty of Versailles that broke the Weimar Constitution of Germany. It was unemployment. Hitler talked in vain when the German was in work. Loss of work is also loss of status. When Hitler raved about the low status of Germany among the nations, it was a dramatic representation of the lack of status of every unemployed worker who listened to him.”
True
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