At The World Transformed 2018 Grace Blakeley talks to Paul Mason about the consequences of Labour's first steps towards moving beyond capitalism.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
What Replaces Capitalism? | Grace Blakeley meets Paul Mason
An excellent video on how Labour will redistribute wealth in the UK. Workers will get a share of company profits up to £500 and then after that the government well take the rest to reinvest into the UK economy. Paul Mason says it will make entrepreneurs invest in high tech industries instead of low track ones like cleaning services because it's easy money. Everyone benefits, workers get a cut of the profits, society benefits from higher skilled jobs, and entrepreneurs get to do more interesting work.
At The World Transformed 2018 Grace Blakeley talks to Paul Mason about the consequences of Labour's first steps towards moving beyond capitalism.
At The World Transformed 2018 Grace Blakeley talks to Paul Mason about the consequences of Labour's first steps towards moving beyond capitalism.
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“A video on how Labour will redistribute wealth in the UK. Workers will get a share of company profits up to £500 and then after that the government well take the rest to reinvest into the UK economy.”
Are we sure that we want this? Small companies are already struggling, while big companies will continue to pay no taxes. In any case, the UK government does not need to tax in order to invest in the UK economy, since the UK government can create infinite money out of thin air. If we treat socialism as a Robin Hood scheme (tax the rich so we can give to the poor) we will meet a lot of resistance, and we will sustain the lie that the UK government runs on tax revenue.
Moreover, £500 a year (USD $650, or €562) won’t go very far. And even if we implemented such a scheme, workers would still have no vote in company policy. Paul Mason says he wants workers to comprise up to a third of board members. What good is a third?
Rather than increase taxes, I suggest that we focus on getting banks under control, since banks cripple the UK and US economy with debt.
And in the USA we desperately need Universal Medicare, since 95% of Americans cannot afford any medical care at all.
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-- OFF TOPIC –
Part 1 of 2
I have long said that inequality and the neoliberal plague have infected Iran, just as they have infected almost every other nation. The neoliberal plague causes hardship for the Iranian masses, and extreme corruption in the government. This is why there have been riots in Iran since Dec 2017. It is also why President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was so hated in the West. Ahmadinejad was anti-neoliberal. When Ahmadinejad was re-elected in June 2009, Iranian neoliberals (backed by the USA) led seven months of protests that became known as the failed “green revolution.”
The current president, Hassan Rouhani, is a rich neoliberal. This is why the West (except for the USA) is willing to do business with Iran. The USA continues to threaten Iran because U.S. and Israeli politicians need distractions as the masses are crushed into poverty and debt bondage.
Anyway I just saw an article that corroborates what I say: Neoliberal Economics: The Plague of Iran’s Economy.
Iran’s economy is a wreck because of U.S. sanctions, but mostly because of internal neoliberalism. In Iran, as in almost everywhere else, politicians and corporate media outlets praise the “invisible hand” of the markets (i.e. the “invisible hand” of rich oligarchs who own and control the markets).
The article agrees with me that Iranian neoliberalism began at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. Then-President Hashemi Rafsanjani was a rich neoliberal oligarch who invited the notorious IMF to manage Iran’s economy. This is why the West called Rafsanjani “enlightened.” His successor, Mohammad Khatami, was also a neoliberal oligarch. These creeps caused so much suffering for the Iranian masses that in August 2005 they elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was anti-neoliberal, and anti-IMF. The USA responded by imposing sanctions on Iran, which caused so much suffering for the Iranian masses that by June 2013 they took a chance on the neoliberal Hassan Rouhani, who promised to get the sanctions lifted (so the masses could be crushed by neoliberalism, rather than by US sanctions). And indeed Rouhani succeeded in getting the “P5+1” deal (aka the JCPOA) in July 2015. However the USA did not honor its end of the bargain, and Trump reneged on the deal altogether in Oct 2017.
So now the Iranian masses are being hammered by U.S. sanctions and by Iranian neoliberalism. Meanwhile a prolonged drought has wiped out millions of Iranian farmers, and pushed up food prices. Hence the series of Iranian riots since Dec 2017.
Continued…
Part 2 of 2
Note that Iranian corporate media outlets constantly repeat the same neoliberal lies that the media outlets repeat in almost every other nation.
EXAMPLE 1: Big government is always and everywhere wasteful and inefficient.
For neoliberals, “big government” is that which serves everyone. “Small and efficient government” is that which serves only the rich.
EXAMPLE 2: Government spending for the poor and working classes leads to waste and inefficiency, plus worker laziness and dependency.
For neoliberals, government spending should be entirely devoted to war, to promoting debt bondage and rent-seeking, and to widening the gap between the rich and the rest.
EXAMPLE 3: Market deregulation leads to efficiency and prosperity.
For neoliberals, “market deregulation” means decriminalization of oligarch theft and fraud, in order to promote oligarch prosperity.
EXAMPLE 4: Free trade and integration into the U.S.-Western financial markets are essential to economic development and social progress.
For neoliberals, “free trade” means oligarch-controlled trade. “Economic development” and “social progress” mean a financialized economy, plus a continuously widening gap between the rich and the rest.
EXAMPLE 5: Abundant liquidity always and everywhere leads to inflation.
For neoliberals, “inflation” means the peasants have too much money and not enough debt. “Too much money” means the peasants have decent lives, and are not slaves of the bankers, nor are they rotting in poverty.
If you think these are oversimplifications, then you have bought into neoliberal lies.
Anyway don’t look to Iran as an alternative to neoliberalism. It isn’t. See the article below to understand why. Russia is also heavily infected by the neoliberal plague.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/03/neoliberal-economics-the-plague-of-irans-economy/
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