{"id":73331,"date":"2023-12-06T08:39:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T08:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=73331"},"modified":"2023-12-06T08:40:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T08:40:47","slug":"there-is-a-way-out-of-stagnation-its-not-hard-to-work-out-it-could-be-delivered-but-first-of-all-we-have-to-care-about-each-other-is-that-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/12\/06\/there-is-a-way-out-of-stagnation-its-not-hard-to-work-out-it-could-be-delivered-but-first-of-all-we-have-to-care-about-each-other-is-that-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"There is a way out of stagnation. Its not hard to work out. It could be delivered. But first of all we have to care about each other. Is that possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Wolf <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ba5dcd88-6c55-4053-bfdb-fb2552f4d61d?segmentId=bf7fa2fd-67ee-cdfa-8261-b2a3edbdf916\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has a column in the FT this morning<\/a> that is headlined:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-73332\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-06-at-08.22.40-550x212.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-06-at-08.22.40-550x212.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-06-at-08.22.40-768x296.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-06-at-08.22.40-600x231.png 600w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-06-at-08.22.40.png 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He does not answer the question as to what the solution is. After a competent analysis of what is wrong that highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>stagnation<\/li>\n<li>declining productivity<\/li>\n<li>falling real wages, especially in comparison to other countries<\/li>\n<li>benefit cuts that have hit the poorest hard<\/li>\n<li>rising housing costs<\/li>\n<li>our failure to build or invest, and<\/li>\n<li>political disenchantment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>he concludes by saying (and I have edited this to reveal his core thinking):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As the country falls behind, unhappiness will grow.<\/p>\n<p>Thatcherism did not ... cause an enduring revival of the UK economy.<\/p>\n<p>Strategic problems need strategic solutions. British governance does muddling through, instead. But that just will not work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Martin Wolf says he will provide answers in another column.<\/p>\n<p>Let me do so now. We need to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Care about our fellow human beings. Right now, we don't.<\/li>\n<li>Make financial services a servant and not a master.<\/li>\n<li>Prioritise meeting the needs of all and not delivering the wants of a few.<\/li>\n<li>Plan for our children's and grandchildren's survival.<\/li>\n<li>Fund strong public services.<\/li>\n<li>Take action to stop the massively destructive excess consumption of some that is destroying this planet for everyone else, which is also utterly distorting our economies.<\/li>\n<li>Have a functioning democracy.<\/li>\n<li>Stop fascism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How do we do that? It's not hard:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tackle inequality by taxing the wealthy and their income fairly. <a href=\"https:\/\/taxingwealth.uk\/2023\/09\/13\/the-taxing-wealth-report-2024-recommendations-to-date-and-their-suggested-value\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I have shown this could raise \u00a3100bn a year<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Redistribute part of that gain to those in need.<\/li>\n<li>Use the rest to fund essential public services.<\/li>\n<li>Change savings incentives so that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/11\/20\/the-reform-of-the-use-of-isa-funds-could-result-in-the-saving-of-at-least-3-7-billion-of-tax-subsidies-a-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ISA<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/11\/30\/reforming-the-conditions-attached-to-pension-tax-relief-could-release-35-billion-a-year-for-investment-in-a-uk-green-new-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pension funds<\/a> are available to fund the investment required for:\n<ul>\n<li>tackling climate change<\/li>\n<li>updating infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>building social housing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reform our democracy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It could be done. It would be utterly transformational. Stagnation would be a dim memory. We would even have a future.<\/p>\n<p>That's my plan. I wonder what Wolf will have to say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Wolf has a column in the FT this morning that is headlined: He does not answer the question as to what the solution is.<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/12\/06\/there-is-a-way-out-of-stagnation-its-not-hard-to-work-out-it-could-be-delivered-but-first-of-all-we-have-to-care-about-each-other-is-that-possible\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,16,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-ethics","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73335,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73331\/revisions\/73335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}