{"id":86721,"date":"2025-10-15T18:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=86721"},"modified":"2025-10-15T18:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:00:44","slug":"what-is-the-harm-of-trying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/10\/15\/what-is-the-harm-of-trying\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the harm of trying?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">What if the real economic madness of this moment isn\u2019t trying something new but refusing to do so?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Austerity has failed. Inequality is rising. Yet our politicians cling to the same broken ideas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">In this off-the-cuff, spur-of-the-moment video, I ask a simple question: <em>What\u2019s the harm of trying something different?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Why not invest? Why not tax wealth? Why not admit that government spending creates money?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s time to stop pretending and start trying.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aCpbDQ-hIpw?si=wEokd9qoHHvL5jwd\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is the transcript:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>What is the harm of trying? That's something I actually said to Thomas about an innovation we are using this morning in production of our videos, and it's an experiment, and it may not work, but Thomas said, \"That's a great title for a video. Why don't we make one called, What's the Harm of Trying?\" And in a sense, that's the whole theme of everything that we are doing on this channel.<\/p>\n<p>What we are saying is, when everything is failing, and it so obviously is, literally all around us, what is the harm of trying something else? \u200aAlbert Einstein is reputed to have made the observation that keeping on doing something when you know it's already failed in the hope that something might go better next time is one of the definitions of madness, and that's the economic loop that we are stuck in.<\/p>\n<p>Our politicians keep on trying austerity, and it keeps on delivering misery. That's the outcome of everything they do. And somehow they're continually surprised by this, as if the outcome of austerity is going to be news to them when it is inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>So what is the harm of trying something different?<\/p>\n<p>Why shouldn't we understand that the government can create money?<\/p>\n<p>Why don't we want to believe that public investment is actually the route to prosperity?<\/p>\n<p>Why is it that we won't tax wealth more, when so glaringly obviously we need to, because those without resources need them and would spend their money into the economy and as a result, create growth, jobs, and everything else that we want, including, as far as the government is concerned, taxation revenue?<\/p>\n<p>Come to that, \u200awhat is the harm of actually believing that government spending comes before taxation when, glaringly, obviously, that is true, because otherwise, where did the money come from to pay taxes in the first place? \u200aAnd yet the government won't try.<\/p>\n<p>And that's an extraordinary accusation to make.<\/p>\n<p>I can remember teachers at school saying, \"If only you tried, Murphy.\" Well, I did try, and I did eventually seem to make a success of the show. But the point was that during most academic years, I didn't bother that much because I was one of those rather annoying kids who could pass exams and didn't have to bother too much about the coursework. Sorry, my apology is in there, but the point is, I found out a system that worked. And our politicians aren't willing to try to find out a system that works.<\/p>\n<p>And that is where we are. That's a definition of the crisis we are in. We aren't trying.<\/p>\n<p>It's got to be worth a try to do something different, hasn't it? Why aren't we doing that?<\/p>\n<p>If any politician wants to come on here and explain why, doing everything the same again is what they believe is the right thing to do, they're very welcome. I invite any of them, well, except Reform, because I don't invite fascists on here and frankly, half of the Tory party as well, for exactly the same reason, but those who are serious about politics rather than about abusing people, they're welcome to come on here and explain why it is they won't try, because that's why they're failing us.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Do you think our politicians are trying? Or are they like the kids at the back of the class, trying to sit there, getting away with doing as little as possible, pretending that everything is working okay, somehow or other, despite the very obvious fact that it isn't? Let us know. There's a poll down below.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-230\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_230\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/Blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_230_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"eaac603d32\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"230\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Why do you think our politicians refuse to try new economic ideas?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-230-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1051\" name=\"poll_230\" value=\"1051\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1051\">Their fear of losing power or control<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1052\" name=\"poll_230\" value=\"1052\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1052\">Their ideological commitment to austerity<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1053\" name=\"poll_230\" value=\"1053\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1053\">Pressure from the wealthy and markets<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1054\" name=\"poll_230\" value=\"1054\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1054\">They genuinely believe things are working OK<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" data-poll-id=\"230\" data-poll-action=\"vote\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" data-poll-id=\"230\" data-poll-action=\"result\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-230-loading\" class=\"wp-polls wp-polls-loading\"><span class=\"wp-polls-spinner\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span> Loading ...<\/div>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Taking further action<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If you want to write a letter to your MP on the issues raised in this blog post, there is a ChatGPT prompt to assist you in doing so, with full instructions,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/06\/20\/chatgpt-prompt-for-a-letter-to-your-mp\/\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One word of warning, though: please ensure you have the correct MP. ChatGPT can get it wrong.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Comments\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When commenting, please take note of this blog\u2019s comment policy,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/about\/comments\/\">which is available here<\/a>. Contravening this policy will result in comments being deleted before or after initial publication at the editor\u2019s sole discretion and without explanation being required or offered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if the real economic madness of this moment isn\u2019t trying something new but refusing to do so? Austerity has failed. Inequality is rising. Yet<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/10\/15\/what-is-the-harm-of-trying\/\"><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":[35,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86721","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=86721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86743,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86721\/revisions\/86743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}