Renegade Inc: Daniel Margrain - Why capitalism is safer in Corbyn’s hands

I've been saying here for some time that from an economic point of that middle-class Tory supporters, especially those with businesses, would be better off voting for one of the other British parties. It's not always about economics that makes people vote for the parties they do, but many small businesses have been wrecked by the big banks that also own the Conservative Party.  We all know here how better wages means more customers for businesses, so more profits for the average entrepreneur. There's no point in being a double glazing salesman in a run down deprived area. KV

Daniel Margrain 

You know there’s something deeply wrong with the state of the global economy when American venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer, reaches consensus with Jeremy Corbyn, that if capitalism doesn’t change fundamentally, it will destroy itself. 

“If we don’t get inequality under control then it’s likely to lead to war. Inequality and the rise of a super rich elite is undermining the foundations of capitalism. The trappings of capitalism could be swept away by the pitchfork of revolution unless capitalism is fundamentally re-imagined.”

The above is not a quote by Jeremy Corbyn, Nicolas Maduro or Bernie Sanders, but by American venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer.

During a 2015 interview with BBC journalist Stephen Sakur, Hanauer said, “If capitalism doesn’t change fundamentally, it will destroy itself.”

“In my state”, he says, “since 1990, close to 100% of growth has been accrued to just 1% of the top earners. People are beginning to get angry and increasingly less patient with a system that rewards nearly all of the benefits of growth to a tiny minority at the top.”

This ‘gushing upwards’ of capital towards the top of the socioeconomic pyramid is not indicative of regulated free-markets, but an extreme form of crony capitalism in which the publicly owned assets of the state are systematically stripped and the spoils distributed to the elite economic and political class.

The potential bailing-out of Carillion, farm, housing and railway subsidies, public sector retrenchment, quantitative easing and share giveaways, are some of the ways in which corporate welfare of this kind continues to greatly enrich the wealthiest in society. Figures reported in the Guardian indicate that the richest 1% in Britain have as much wealth as the poorest 57% combined.

No morality

Hanaeur is clear that his argument isn’t intended to be a moral one but, rather, it’s arguably a pragmatic solution to a growing crisis: “I’m not saying that we capitalists should pay workers more because we feel sorry for them. But the more they get paid, the better it will be for venture capitalists like me”, he said.

Hanaeur added:

“The more money ordinary folks’ make, the greater the opportunity people like me have to innovate, create enterprises and sell them stuff. The better they do, the better I do.”

Renegade Inc: Daniel Margrain - Why capitalism is safer in Corbyn’s hands