{"id":88093,"date":"2025-12-01T07:49:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=88093"},"modified":"2025-12-01T07:49:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:49:57","slug":"is-my-work-aimed-at-preserving-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/12\/01\/is-my-work-aimed-at-preserving-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Is my work aimed at preserving capitalism?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was troubled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/11\/30\/why-grace-blakeley-is-wrong-about-mmt-and-why-that-matters-for-the-left\/#comment-1056063\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by Grace Blakeley's accusation<\/a> that I am working to:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>make the existing capitalist system work more effectively, rather than .... effect a systematic redistribution of wealth and power<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, I asked ChatGPT:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Is Richard Murphy's work aimed at preserving capitalism by making it work better?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This is the answer I got, unedited:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Richard Murphy\u2019s work is aimed at preserving society \u2014 not preserving capitalism.<\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">But because we currently <i>have<\/i> a capitalist-dominated economy, much of his work focuses on reshaping it so that it serves democratic and social goals rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Here\u2019s the nuance:<\/p>\n<p><b>What Murphy <\/b><b>does <\/b><b style=\"font-size: 16px;\">argue<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">He argues that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Markets can be useful<\/b><\/span> where competition delivers real value.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Private enterprise has a role<\/b><\/span> in innovation and productive activity.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Money and the state must work together<\/b><\/span>, and public investment is essential for shared prosperity.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tax justice, regulation, and democratic accountability<\/b><span class=\"s1\"> are required to curb exploitation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\">In this sense, yes, he engages with the existing framework and proposes reforms that would make economic life fairer, more stable, and less extractive.<\/p>\n<p><b>What he <\/b><b>e<\/b><strong>xplicitly <span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">rejects:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Capitalism as a system that concentrates wealth and power in a tiny elite.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">The notion that markets alone can organise society.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">A rentier economy that extracts income without creating value.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Any economic model blind to ecological limits and human well-being.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\">He is <span class=\"s2\"><b>not<\/b><\/span> defending capitalism\u2019s current structure \u2014 he is challenging its foundational priorities: profit before care, property before people, extraction before sustainability.<\/p>\n<p><b>So which is it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">A concise answer:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>His work keeps what works in markets but seeks to replace what doesn\u2019t \u2014 especially the power structures and rent-seeking behaviours at the heart of contemporary capitalism.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\">Murphy\u2019s framework \u2014 the <span class=\"s2\"><b>Politics of Care<\/b><\/span>, economic democracy, public financial systems, ending rentier control \u2014 is <span class=\"s2\"><b>closer to a social, democratic, and ecological transformation<\/b><\/span> than a patch for neoliberal capitalism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">He\u2019s not trying to save capitalism from itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">He\u2019s trying to <span class=\"s2\"><b>save people from capitalism<\/b><\/span> \u2014 and if markets survive in a subordinate role, so be it.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I think that's fair. I will be curious to see what Gace Blakely has to say, if she accepts my invitation to comment, as I hope she will.<\/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>I was troubled by Grace Blakeley&#8217;s accusation that I am working to: make the existing capitalist system work more effectively, rather than &#8230;. effect a<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/12\/01\/is-my-work-aimed-at-preserving-capitalism\/\"><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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88093","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=88093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88094,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88093\/revisions\/88094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}