I am working on putting the Taxing Wealth Report 2024 together as one document right now. I need an opinion from you, the readers of this blog, on this issue.
The whole report is really big. If all the detailed analysis is included in the report it is some 130,000 words and well over 300 pages. I can't see anyone reading all that, but I may be wrong.
There is an alternative way of publishing this Report. That is to only include the summary sections briefly outlining each detailed proposal, which were the first section of each note on every proposal made in the report. A link could then be provided so that anyone could follow up on the detailed proposal on the web if they so wished. This would probably at least halve the length of the report. I would still keep all the introductory and explanatory chapters in full.
My question is, which option do people here think might be more useful? The whole report, or a report with summaries of all the proposals of sufficient length to explain what they are but with detailed workings being relegated to the web, where they already are? Your opinion would quite genuinely be much appreciated.
I should add that both options might also be possible, but only the shorter one is likely to be viable in print (if at all).
In what form should the Taxing Wealth Report 2024 be published?
- In short form, with each proposal being summarised with weblinks being added to detailed workings (52%, 287 Votes)
- Are you more lilely to buy the short form report? (20%, 109 Votes)
- In both formats (19%, 105 Votes)
- Are you likely to want to buy a printed copy of the report even though it will be available free as a PDF? (7%, 40 Votes)
- In full, i.e. all 130,000 words in one report (1%, 8 Votes)
Total Voters: 393
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Publish in “short form”… with supporting material available.
In my experience “less is more” – it prompts questions and you get to engage with interested parties as they look for more information.
More important is publicising that fact that it is “out there”… and here we, your blog readers/contributors, have a role to play.
Thanks
I like to have physical documents to PDF files. I normally end up printing them out. I do a lot of reading while traveling by bus and prefer reading something printed and, preferably, bound, to trying to read a PDF on my Fairphone. Being something of a nerd, I prefer not to have summaries but could live with only the summary being in printed form.
I should point out, however, that my tastes tend to be somewhat eccentric.
I hear you….
The Report is – literally – going to be outdated within 9 months.
The overall proposals, from my reading, are relevant until they are adopted or covered in some other way, which could take some longer time. The *calculations* in print could become useless (but on the web could be updated), but a summary of the justifications will continue to carry weight.
I therefore voted for “short form”, and may be ‘likely to purchase that”. (I have yet to calculate the Budget impact on my pension.)
Thanks
I agree, the detail will go out of date
The principles will not
Thanks Anne Cruise. I change my vote to short version with links. Still want a hard copy though, and happy to pay for it.
Thanks
Short form with links would be better for me. Much like a website where if i want to know more detail I can follow it. It would also make it easier to gain a grasp of the whole report in one sitting, then follow through on gaining more depth.
Thanks
Would it be possible to do a one-page ‘soundbite’ version just saying, as with Keynes- anything we can actually do we can afford – and listing some of the top headlines from the report, and low hanging taxing fruit .
It might help to cut through in this stupid soundbite ‘maxed credit card’ culture.
The very short form was pubushed on Monday
Can I go shorter
“If we need more revenue the wealthy have ample capacity to pay it”?
Sorry yes – forgot about the Monday summary.
IFS this lunchtime being markedly more critical than usual – but keeping it safe – saying ‘its both Parties’ – which it is.
I linked the Monday pdf, with the single summary table, into a FB R4 politics group post.
As well as the ultra dismissive militant centrist comments of the SKS supporters party, (one of whom, self identified as a champagne socialist, claimed that £75k was not really a living wage for many in the SE with a mortgage, so not much of a start point for increasing the tax burden), the simple presentation was supported by others, even some centrists.
People did actually bother to click the link and read the summary reporting and the simplicity of the presentation had positive comments for understandability.
Okay, its a small sample of largely ABC1, SE based, Remainer, anti-Tories, and many SKS loyalists, but the positive comments were that it was understandable and clearly presented.
I’d strongly recommend publishing a very short synopsis , with high quality graphics and a summary table we all can read easily, designed for a social media audience, so maybe 2-3 sides of A4 maximum..
Quite a lot of Richard’s memes get pretty good coverage on various leftish FB pages, and circulation into the thousands, but often there’s only a fair understanding of MMT, and here is a golden opportunity to broaden the message.
The biggest issue I have had is in arguing for abandoning the household budget trope, which is strongly supported by the Starmerites who see its simplicity as a strength – even when pointed out that it is a lie, and less accurate than the £350m NHS funding slogan on the Brexit bus.
Would videos help?
And thanks for that comment
A short video would almost certainly be very helpful.
A lot of people really do like hearing the message directly..
I do not know what the optimal length is re attention span, for this kind of presentation.
I recall your own MMT videos for the Scottish Central Bank, a few years back, which had a lot of attention from Indy supporters online, and spread the message very well I thought.
Thanks
There are some who watch a video, perhaps several times if it interests them but would never read a document containing the same information. So videos would definitely help spread the word. Whether they would help enough to justify your spending time on them is another matter. I don’t know enough about people’s viewing habits to have a view on that.
I am never sure, but maybe that shows…..
You can’t please all the people all the time.
So both formats is the obviously format, in “tabloid format”: headlines at the beginning, bullet points, summaries, more detailed information, ending with footnotes and citations for those need them.
Thanks
It feels like it has been around forever.. every proposal individually has been pushed on twitter etc..
You do know how change happens, don’t you?
You say something.
Then you repeat it.
Then you remind everyone of what you said.
And then you do it all over again.
Yep i agree but hear it seems no one is listening
Watch out Richard and fellow readers, it seems we are deemed to be extremists being broadly socialists and anti fascists.
Socialism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion on Prevent list of terrorism warning signs
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/07/socialism-anti-fascism-anti-abortion-prevent-list-terrorism-warning-signs?CMP=share_btn_url
!!!
Staggering, isn’t it?
Scarily so. Dark days, indeed.
The last I have some agreement with, as some of the anti abortion religious extremists in the US (and possibly elsewhere) have murdered healthcare staff working in clinics offering abortions. And many of the violent far right are anti feminist, anti-women’s sexual health and so anti abortion.
And some of the tactics adopted by US inspired anti abortionists here have nedessitated councils establishing exclusion zones to protect women going into clinics from haressment.
But the rest merely proves how extreme this government is. Are they frightened of anti fascists because they are going that way themselves?
Could you get someone like Lord Lloyd-Webber to produce an opera, asap? A bit like ‘Hamilton’ but with some catchphrases like ‘there isn’t a government credit card’ or ‘running a country isn’t a household’ set to memorable tunes?
(Only joking… but there are different means of communication that suit different people: visuals, diagrams as well as text, numerate/tables/not; audio/video…)
And I’d second the comments about having a short executive summary (Monday’s post?) AND a relatively short-form version but with links AND the full version (eg the target of the links to different entry points therein).
Mondays is very short form.
The intro (ten pages or so) will follow soon.
Together they will cover a lot of the ground and are 90% of what will ever be read.
I do most of my reading on a laptop these days, so short-form with weblinks is perfect for me. I also think 130k words is too unwieldy for almost everyone, even if the detail is necessary for some.
The lack of willingness of journalists particularly to read any kind of depth is, in my view, a significant driver as to why reporting is so minimal on anything but the accepted economic paradigm of ‘there’s no money’. Somehow the public need to be exposed to some other voices and one of the best at present is Gary Stevenson with his Garyseconomics Instagram and YouTube channels. Could he be an ally?
His economics does not suffice ientoy crooks over, but I will be sending this far and wide
Richard,
Your typos can usually be spotted and interpreted, but ‘suffice ientoy crooks over’ has really got me foxed !
Where was that? I can’t find it
Richard,
“His economics does not suffice ientoy crooks over, but I will be sending this far and wide ”
posted 7 March 7.32 pm in reply to RobC.
Oops….
Sufficiantly cross over?
On the question of brevity, I recently attended an LGPS committee meeting. The papers that came with it amounted to 189 pages. Did I read them all? Well actually, yes – but I’m retired and have plenty of time to do so. I suspect some of the other people with less free time may have just looked at the bits that were pertinent to their area – but as it’s technically a public meeting, everything has to be there with i’s dotted and t’s crossed. Perhaps the most significant issue of large amounts of data is that important or controversial items can be hidden in plain sight if the data runs to two or three hundred pages. A classic example of this is the recent Government Data Protection Act with the very controversial Clause 34.
Whichever version it is the fist fifteen pages or so will provide a very clear guide to all the rest.
Hmm, it depends how the text draws me in to the ideas I guess. I voted for both forms because if I get intrigued with a particular idea and ramifications I might like to dip out of a briefer summary into a bit more detail. But actually a short form version might be a better bet for an overal picture. Probably as a non-tax-specialist realistically the summary pages will ‘feel-like’ a full explanation anyway.
Probably a weird thing to say of a tax expert and academic (such as yourself) but – ‘thanks for your service’ – and lets truly hope we (you) can bring back some equality of wealth in our country (and wider world).
PS – A little plea for modelling your wealth-tax concepts in overarching diagrams/models to feed visual learners…
As a non-visual learner I find that hard….
Thanks for the comment
Who is the target audience, or audiences, and how do you intend to reach them? Once that is defined it may be easier to decide how and in what format(s) it should be published.
Maybe a dedicated website is a possibility , designed by a professional, which would enable you to publish in several formats, from the whole report for serious academics who will want to test the robustness of the arguments and the supporting evidence to bite size chunks for those coming to the subject for the first time and one or two intermediate versions. Just a thought.
Would a dedicated professional website be better than what I have already produced?
How, when I find most professionally designed websites nigh on impossible to find data on?
OK, point taken. Thought it might save you time.
I agree with you that 300 pages is not going to be read, but some people will want to pursue the detail of particular proposals. So a concise form with links to full exposition would probably be favourite.
Thanks
Thank you for all this work, Richard.
I voted for the short form. The detail is of course very important but the principles are what will have most impact – hopefully!
You need the long form for deposit libraries, institutional research libraries ( House of Commons, House of Lords, Major universities etc etc.)8
Only if I ISBN it….
You really must
Short form with links would be my preference, for most of the reasons already given.
Videos for me are something I go to if I want to delve deeper but I don’t like the time they take to run (reading is faster, and a good graphic faster still). So they need to be short, unless they’re a full lesson, in my view.
A great graphic with a memorable text (comics?) packs a lot of punch. Add links to bottom.
Thank you for keeping us educated.
Thanks
All noted ….
Richard,
I am not that likely to purchase a physical copy for myself, but I’d be quite happy to purchase one to send to my MP!
Might be worth considering facilitating your readers sending them to decision makers.
Given your poll, I think it’s often the case that those sort of people, (leaders) like bullet points and I find it often takes them a long time to grasp the detail that matters. Detail sometimes dilutes the message which might be quite simple really – “government can afford to do all the things it needs to do, and here’s how.”
To be honest, given the tories have now aped Labour’s single wealth tax plan, they ought to be champing at the bit for a report like this.
Thanks
Chris
Thanks
“I am not that likely to purchase a physical copy for myself, but I’d be quite happy to purchase one to send to my MP!”
Great idea Chris.
My MP is Rachel Reeves…
With regard to recording this report, if you publish the short form in a physical form with ISBN and send copies to the British Library it should be catalogued. With regard to your online publishing these should be covered by the BL’s attempt to archive significant British online sites. I need to check this when the BL is up and running again otherwise does the Internet Archive record your sites?
My site has been archived by the BL for well over a decade
I trust the report (whatever its length, unless it’s only that 15-page summary) will have a professionally compiled index (i.e. not just a “word search”)? I know that will add a short delay to its production, but its analysis of the text will offer more access points for people whose prior knowledge and ways of thinking are different from yours, and who may want to home in on specific areas and will not read the whole thing.
I am not planning out his
I think people will only search by recommendation