Liz Truss might like to read this:
Tax cuts for the rich lead to higher income inequality. But they do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment. Evidence for 18 OECD countries over 1965-2015 in this new paper published in Socio-Economic Review: pic.twitter.com/J3tCt8b1Fs
— Philipp Heimberger (@heimbergecon) August 6, 2022
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The only thing Truss reads is her own atavistic tendencies and that of her party to achieve power. Hopefully with her and Sunak’s wish to play to the posh seats in the house (the small minority of Tory voters), they’ll ignore the stalls and the whole sorry Tory party will be booed offstage at the next election.
It wouldn’t make any difference to her view or to any of her (many) supporters – and the MSM that support her. As you well know, this is about ideology and dogma, not factually based argument. Ditto the decisions of most (all but one, in fact) of the BoE monetary policy committee. And the list would go on and on. Politics and policy making for the right in the UK – and indeed across the world – is no longer based on any form of realism or reality. Instead, it’s about saying or doing anything that gains and keeps you in power. Hence why governments across the globe have become incapable of solving any of the vast array of environmental, social and economic problems that confront humankind. I see no end to this sorry saga.
I was interviewed by Stern magazine last night. This is fairly influential in Germany. One question was “Is the Bank of England malicious?”
My answer was that I hoped not and that it was just incompetent, but I could not be sure since it was clear they knew the consequences of their actions.
The nicest way of putting it in my view is that the BoE are simply stymied by years of monetarist dogma. And people like the Governor are not there to ‘look up’; they’re there to hold the line with that dogma – not to be innovative or even fair.
The current policies are there to help the rich. It is as simple as that. And the BoE is there to facilitate it. So not only has wealth captured politics, but also the sovereign money making and distribution system for themselves.
And as ever the charts can’t demonstrate how those cuts were almost certainly correlated with a drop in living standards for much of the population who presumably got fewer/lower quality services.
I think the really terrifying thing for me is I always thought the Tories were split into the ones who know none of this works or has ever worked in a real economy, and the proper idealogues who believe despite all evidence that it will. But I’m not sure any of the former appear to be left.
(NB. in moral terms they’re actually worse because they are literally just about enriching their pals, but at least in practical terms they realise this pish will obliterate even many wealthy people)
Liz Truss favour[s] lowering taxes over “giving out handouts” to help households hit by higher fuel bills.
But tax cuts are still handouts. They are simply handouts to richer people. Tories really are the thickest individuals. It is ok to malign the poor by calling things “handouts” but ok to praise the rich by calling handouts “incentives”. A disgrace.
I don’t believe they are thick – it’s too calculated and deliberate. They’ve been known as the nasty party for decades and nothing has changed my mind about that. Change MP’s pay to minimum wage and no expenses – things will change in the blink of an eye.
That wouldn’t worry Sunak, Rees-Mogg or many of the Tory front bench.
It would exclude most of the MPs.
good day all ,i am confused with conservative tax cut pledge ,i live in spain but have uk assets both my self and wife have a joint tax allowance of 8900 euros in spain which is a lot less than our £12500 uk allowance pp
to me if people want good public services which spain has the money has to come from enterprise and taxation example ,i put my son through spanish state uni he did law ,ie 5 year degree,20 month masters,1 years bar study ,total cost 9300 euros in fees ,very different in the uk were the fees to me verge on the extortion of our youth so to me global Britain needs a well trained youth that are not strapped to uni loans, and uni for medical and technology & manufacturing should be free at point of use ,assuming that UK PLC wants a young well trained work force of nurses and engineers ,UK taxes need to go up to fund services,if not it will just carry on been a race to the bottom ,with an understaffed NHS ,police force and skills trade base. Regards Steve in Almeria
Steve
You need to learn what tax does
Read my ebook ‘Money for nothing and my tweets for free’
Richard
I imagine her reaction would be along the lines of “lefty academics would say that!”, a reaction a got from a local Tory councillor when I pointed out the conclusions of research into the effects if traffic pollution.
I can’t help but think, following the financial crisis, the on-going Brexit effect the COVID crisis abd the war in Ukraine that, increasingly, the very wealthy have found that it is incredibly easy to make vast amounts of money during times of economic and domestic stress. Even where this gathering up of wealth is enabled by exploitation and corruption very little in the way of censure occurs.
It seems so brazen now that the politicians that further enable it don’t even have to come up with coherent policies. Indeed it seems that the only road to salvation for the ordinary citizen is to tread a road paved with broken glass and to accept that this is just what one deserves.
I’ve tried on a number of occasions to talk, with some fairly right wing voters, about the spending and repaying data supplied on Tax Research by Richard. I’ve never got very far. The first line of defence is always denial, either of me as the passer on of the data, or of Richard as the documentor. In short many simply refuse to believe the facts even when pointed to the source. Even when current economic difficulties are causing real household money problems for them the refusal to see through their chosen masters is strong. Quite often phrases along the lines of ‘Gordon Brown’s debt’ or ‘the Labour government trashed the economy’ are thrown in as if the last decade of Tory rule had not occurred.
Unless the right wing voters you speak of are themselves part of the very wealthy, they and their families are probably not personally benefiting from the policies of this government. Why would they not want to educate themselves as to what is going on? What are they frightened of?
“The left”
“Socialists”
Indeed, and it baffles me.
They identify with the people who are rich and make decisions. A few may believe that at some point they will be able to join that class ; probably most know they won’t. More will think those at the top will be on their side. The ‘ruling class’ a.k.a the top 1% and other titles, try to persuade that is the case. The tabloids and Telegraph will repeat the message as often as required.
They want to distance themselves from those at the bottom. To do that means accepting and repeating the stories to justify it. Again the Telegraph and tabloids will help them out with material.
Being old, over 75, I am increasingly worried that the Tories will change the law and make General Elections a thing of the past. This has happened in other countries and with the ERG now controlling Tory policy we could, by 2024, be a one party state?
They risk is real
I hope the mass of the population would prevent it
I don’t think hat the mass of the population give a damn as long as they get “Strictly Come Dancing” and “ I’m a Celebrity” such is the depth to which we have sunk.
I think you are wrong
Where are the policies from Labour?
I’m beginning to despair as I keep looking for the policies but none are forthcoming
Rishi Sunak will never become Tory party leader. He’s the wrong colour
David Byrne says:
What if the Tory ‘economic strategy’ were really simple, but obscured and confounded by rhetoric, lies and media-based propaganda? What if it were simply an attack on UK, accumulated, personal wealth; in short, the asset-stripping of each citizen and the transfer of this wealth to the unequal few?
Think about it, and discuss.
I read some time ago that personal wealth in the UK amounts to £13 Trillions-a mouth-watering sum available to be plundered.
And the plundering is happening now, taking many ordinary people down the road to serfdom.
I think this is the policy
Thanks For this reference. Should anyone beinterested, the fullpaper is at:
https://academic.oup.com/ser/article/20/2/539/6500315?login=false
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The Twitterer (if thatis the term), Heimberger, is himself the author of a very interesting study, suggesting that corporate tax cuts probably have no economic effect:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292122000885