I think that Phillip Inman successfully summarises reaction to Rishi Sunak's replacement job retention scheme when saying in The Observer:
The winter plan involves a switch from the furlough scheme to a much cheaper subsidy for part-time working. To the dismay of business leaders and unions, the subsidy has been so severely cut that it is unlikely to be taken up by many employers.
He added:
Unemployment will climb and poverty will suck in more families. Worse, at least for the spread of the virus, there was an absence of realistic protection for individuals who need to self-isolate — the sum remained at £500 for 14 days.
And he then noted:
No wonder the latest data on self-isolation from King's College London shows that only 18.2% of people reporting Covid symptoms stayed at home.
This is, of course, inevitable. Whilst those around the Prime Minister might think that having substantial savings as a buffer against unforeseen circumstances is commonplace, in society at large no such buffers exist, as the Resolution Foundation has shown:
Note that wealth as defined here includes both net property wealth and pension wealth. Much will then be highly illiquid at lower wealth levels, reducing its value in current circumstances.
What then is the consequence of Sunak's now very apparent plan to fail? It is not just the unemployment that Phillip Inman correctly notes is now certain, but all the follow on consequences, from failing to tackle coronavirus onwards.
We will have a health crisis. That will now take many forms: the pandemic is but one of the many issues that will emerge.
We have a jobs crisis already.
The crisis of corporate failure will begin as soon as the backlog of tax, rent, mortgage, loans and other deferred liabilities begins to fall due.
The long term risks of failing to invest in jobs now will soon become apparent.
But most of all, households unable to pay their bills will begin to face financial failure - in very large numbers, with untold human cost to come.
And still all Sunak cares about is trying to balance his books.
This is econocide: the deliberate destruction of economic well being to the point that it is life-threatening by a government. There is no other way to explain this now.
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Well after reading this post and the latest from progressive pulse this morning http://www.progressivepulse.org/economics/sunak-is-going-to-trash-our-economy-and-our-lives
I am well and truly depressed.
I am luckier than some My application for my Irish passport will be started tomorrow.
It is the late 70s and early 80s all over again. The Tories hope to ride out the cost of mass unemployment, reconfigure the workforce, and make a profit out of it. Do not forget the tories have 4 more years before the next General Election, so they could not give a fig about ordinary folk. After all, it is all behind us when the new General Election takes place in late 2024. Lots of time they think to make people forget, and it worked though – a good old war was to wrap people up in a patriotic glow. Just you wait and see a new war will be declared on some poor defenseless country get us all singing rule Britannia. Johnson the blond Maggie reborn.
‘Econocide’
I like it – very apt.
Only a divided country like this one could fall prey to such unprincipled lot as this.
There seems to be very little we can do to organise a collective self defence.
I think the Government’s policy is ‘Lets let nature take its course’.
See you on the other side…………………………
If we make it….
We will all make the other side but with this governments policies some will be in heaven and others will still suffer as now.
Wasn’t sure whether to post this, but I think it has something to say of relevance to this discussion…
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-bazooka-modern-monetary-theory-in-action
Yes, but not econocide for the richest. I am leaning more and more towards Trotsky and Dorothy Day.
I’m leaning more towards ‘a Trotsky’ (Coctail with Tequila, Cranberry, Triple sec & Lime) and Doris Day…. nut that’s just me!