29-12-2021, 10:40 AM
Neo liberalism, favouring corporations, the future
"Each time govts offer tax breaks & environmental deregulation – without due diligence, proper oversight, reasonable checks & balances, financial subsidies – to corporations whose sole object is profit, social democracy is placed in jeopardy. Every instance, every example, every precedent where govts have turned a blind eye to corporate maleficence or allowed their social services to be monetized & put into the absolute control of private enterprise repeats Chamberlain’s folly at Munich. There can be no peace or economic equality in our times if power is concentrated in a handful of individuals or corporations.
We can either bear witness to the end of the progressive era, or we can work together & keep social democracy from capsizing into a sea of corporate self-interest. We must not let our history be written in the boardrooms of hedge funds & conglomerates, or else we will cease to be a fee people.
The current financial tempest has not been caused by a natural recalibrations, but by a deliberate attempt to readdress the rights earned by workers & the middle classes since 1945. The chains of ignorance & the fetters of poverty that my ancestors & my generation wore are being refitted to modern citizens. Why is this so?
In my opinion it is because the common people’s right to a dignified life is no longer protected by law or custom. This country once had a vision & a road map to lead each of us to future prosperity. That map has been replaced with a kind of neo liberalism that is frog marching us back to a time that was best left to history.
This emergency is as dire as the economic crisis of 1933 or the threat we faced in 2939. Our survival as a people & nation is at risk, & unless we combat the forces that have monetized our social services & weakened our democratic institutions we will each suffer in our own separate ways. Many of us are suffering already.
It has to stop, & a strong anti-lobbyist bill has to be introduced. We have to have a law that bars former politicians, their spouses & their children from working as lobbyists for ten years after they have left Whitehall."
social welfare state, taxes
"The social welfare state protected the country from the horrors of endemic poverty or ill health, & it propelled the country forward. By the 19502 & 60s our young, regardless of their class received a comprehensive education that allowed them to navigate a job market that required employees to be familiar with changing technologies in shipbuilding, steel manufacturing, mining & factory assembly lines. It has to be remembered that the social welfare state was not constructed during fair weather days, but at the end of the second world war. The costs to reconstruct Britain’s social & industrial infrastructure were enormous, but it was done. We built this new society while repaying the billions we borrowed to wage war for democracy’s survival.
The social welfare state was created with prudence, foresight & was paid for through enlightened taxation. The govt levied an income tax that was progressive & fair on both individuals & corporations. The rate was high; in some instances 50 or 60%.
However, we must not forget that for over a millennium the richest families of the realm, along with their industries, hoarded their wealth & paid little or no tax to keep the ship of state afloat.
History teaches us that when taxes were not properly levied, slums flourished, epidemics raged & crime was rampant. A two tier society, cruelly divided by prosperity & poverty, was created. When the welfare state was born, the govt & many of this country’s inhabitants agreed that paying tax was a civic responsibility."
Harry’s last stand; how the world my generation built is falling down & what we can do to save it, Harry Leslie Smith.
"Each time govts offer tax breaks & environmental deregulation – without due diligence, proper oversight, reasonable checks & balances, financial subsidies – to corporations whose sole object is profit, social democracy is placed in jeopardy. Every instance, every example, every precedent where govts have turned a blind eye to corporate maleficence or allowed their social services to be monetized & put into the absolute control of private enterprise repeats Chamberlain’s folly at Munich. There can be no peace or economic equality in our times if power is concentrated in a handful of individuals or corporations.
We can either bear witness to the end of the progressive era, or we can work together & keep social democracy from capsizing into a sea of corporate self-interest. We must not let our history be written in the boardrooms of hedge funds & conglomerates, or else we will cease to be a fee people.
The current financial tempest has not been caused by a natural recalibrations, but by a deliberate attempt to readdress the rights earned by workers & the middle classes since 1945. The chains of ignorance & the fetters of poverty that my ancestors & my generation wore are being refitted to modern citizens. Why is this so?
In my opinion it is because the common people’s right to a dignified life is no longer protected by law or custom. This country once had a vision & a road map to lead each of us to future prosperity. That map has been replaced with a kind of neo liberalism that is frog marching us back to a time that was best left to history.
This emergency is as dire as the economic crisis of 1933 or the threat we faced in 2939. Our survival as a people & nation is at risk, & unless we combat the forces that have monetized our social services & weakened our democratic institutions we will each suffer in our own separate ways. Many of us are suffering already.
It has to stop, & a strong anti-lobbyist bill has to be introduced. We have to have a law that bars former politicians, their spouses & their children from working as lobbyists for ten years after they have left Whitehall."
social welfare state, taxes
"The social welfare state protected the country from the horrors of endemic poverty or ill health, & it propelled the country forward. By the 19502 & 60s our young, regardless of their class received a comprehensive education that allowed them to navigate a job market that required employees to be familiar with changing technologies in shipbuilding, steel manufacturing, mining & factory assembly lines. It has to be remembered that the social welfare state was not constructed during fair weather days, but at the end of the second world war. The costs to reconstruct Britain’s social & industrial infrastructure were enormous, but it was done. We built this new society while repaying the billions we borrowed to wage war for democracy’s survival.
The social welfare state was created with prudence, foresight & was paid for through enlightened taxation. The govt levied an income tax that was progressive & fair on both individuals & corporations. The rate was high; in some instances 50 or 60%.
However, we must not forget that for over a millennium the richest families of the realm, along with their industries, hoarded their wealth & paid little or no tax to keep the ship of state afloat.
History teaches us that when taxes were not properly levied, slums flourished, epidemics raged & crime was rampant. A two tier society, cruelly divided by prosperity & poverty, was created. When the welfare state was born, the govt & many of this country’s inhabitants agreed that paying tax was a civic responsibility."
Harry’s last stand; how the world my generation built is falling down & what we can do to save it, Harry Leslie Smith.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)