Top Tory calls for Shock Therapy for the economy.
Whilst agreeing with him in principle unfortunately his shock therapy is not mine.
His is really the same old, same old, tired right wing proposals. Its the poor wot pays the price and the wealth creators who need encouragement, so reduce benefits and reduce taxes, the same old stick to beat the poor, the working class and elderly and the same old carrot to encourage the rich.
Shock Therapy is needed but who to shock and how?
Labour introduced a minimum wage, to howls of outraged opposition from the Tory Ukips.
Actually it was a sign of a civilised society that a fair days work is worth a fair days pay and anyway slaves should be sold not paid off.
So my first shock but would be a national maximum wage.
There should be a clear and agreed link between what the lowest paid are paid and what the highest paid are paid.
I and thousands like me have gone about the business of raising their families on the average wage whilst watching footballers, being treated by Doctors, seeing our bosses and being lectured by MP´s and Bank managers whose earnings outstrip ours by factors of not tens but many hundreds.
Linking minumum/maximum earnings would create a real sense of connectedness that would demonstrate that we are really all in it together.
The coalition is proud that it has taken many lower paid out of taxation all together.
That is good, but it has also taken many high earners out of taxation too and that is not good.
So along with a maximum wage and linked to it would be a flat rate system of taxation meaning that we all paid tax, with maximum wage earners paying the same in percentage terms but more in actual money.
I would insist that we looked closely at the defence budget. What do we need an armed forces for? To fight foreign wars? To maintain peace in trouble spots globally? To police civil society in times of emergency or crisis?
Answer those questions and I am sure that the need for Trident would disappear completely.
So whilst the defence budget needs reviewing the pressure would be relieved if Trident was stood down and not replaced.
Another shock would be all the privateers who have taken over the running and administration of public services.
I am sure that people will remonstrate that the savings have been considerable and the efficiencies greater, to which the response is an Olympic G4s.
Public services should be run by public servants, it makes sense, it creates jobs, it keeps good folk in employment and because it is obvious that, and there are plenty of well documented cases to demonstrate, the profits generated by the privateers are considerable.
And that cannot be right.
So an end to the capitas of this world.
The final shock is also the most controversial.
Most of us don´t need to work at all. There is enough wealth in the world that we need neither starve or be bored.
Technologies have been employed to make huge profits for individuals. Some seek to plough that back.
Some have simply become personally richer and that needs to be challenged.
But it is time that, with due oversight of the processes involved, a whole new generation of dreamers, artists, poets and musicians are rewarded and encouraged to deepen the artistic wealth of our societies.
So all the back to work schemes and the policing of benefits the whole apparatus of welfare to work could be dismantled as it would no longer be necessary.
People could study longer, dream their dreams, write their poems and find their audiences wherever they can
These days what has been called the malthusian - darwinian notion that everyone should be át work´ lies at the heart not only of conservative policy making but at the centre of their moral framework, and it is nonsense.
Individuals have no more need to justify their existence than the birds of the air or the flowers of the field.
Whilst agreeing with him in principle unfortunately his shock therapy is not mine.
His is really the same old, same old, tired right wing proposals. Its the poor wot pays the price and the wealth creators who need encouragement, so reduce benefits and reduce taxes, the same old stick to beat the poor, the working class and elderly and the same old carrot to encourage the rich.
Shock Therapy is needed but who to shock and how?
Labour introduced a minimum wage, to howls of outraged opposition from the Tory Ukips.
Actually it was a sign of a civilised society that a fair days work is worth a fair days pay and anyway slaves should be sold not paid off.
So my first shock but would be a national maximum wage.
There should be a clear and agreed link between what the lowest paid are paid and what the highest paid are paid.
I and thousands like me have gone about the business of raising their families on the average wage whilst watching footballers, being treated by Doctors, seeing our bosses and being lectured by MP´s and Bank managers whose earnings outstrip ours by factors of not tens but many hundreds.
Linking minumum/maximum earnings would create a real sense of connectedness that would demonstrate that we are really all in it together.
The coalition is proud that it has taken many lower paid out of taxation all together.
That is good, but it has also taken many high earners out of taxation too and that is not good.
So along with a maximum wage and linked to it would be a flat rate system of taxation meaning that we all paid tax, with maximum wage earners paying the same in percentage terms but more in actual money.
I would insist that we looked closely at the defence budget. What do we need an armed forces for? To fight foreign wars? To maintain peace in trouble spots globally? To police civil society in times of emergency or crisis?
Answer those questions and I am sure that the need for Trident would disappear completely.
So whilst the defence budget needs reviewing the pressure would be relieved if Trident was stood down and not replaced.
Another shock would be all the privateers who have taken over the running and administration of public services.
I am sure that people will remonstrate that the savings have been considerable and the efficiencies greater, to which the response is an Olympic G4s.
Public services should be run by public servants, it makes sense, it creates jobs, it keeps good folk in employment and because it is obvious that, and there are plenty of well documented cases to demonstrate, the profits generated by the privateers are considerable.
And that cannot be right.
So an end to the capitas of this world.
The final shock is also the most controversial.
Most of us don´t need to work at all. There is enough wealth in the world that we need neither starve or be bored.
Technologies have been employed to make huge profits for individuals. Some seek to plough that back.
Some have simply become personally richer and that needs to be challenged.
But it is time that, with due oversight of the processes involved, a whole new generation of dreamers, artists, poets and musicians are rewarded and encouraged to deepen the artistic wealth of our societies.
So all the back to work schemes and the policing of benefits the whole apparatus of welfare to work could be dismantled as it would no longer be necessary.
People could study longer, dream their dreams, write their poems and find their audiences wherever they can
These days what has been called the malthusian - darwinian notion that everyone should be át work´ lies at the heart not only of conservative policy making but at the centre of their moral framework, and it is nonsense.
Individuals have no more need to justify their existence than the birds of the air or the flowers of the field.
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