Progressive Principles

In 2010 when the UK was going through austerity under a Conservative government, I worked with a group that was loosely associated with the UK Labour Party to look at alternative principles to the Neo-liberal principles that were being used by the government. Although the principles that we developed never gained any traction at the time, I have not thrown away what we developed. Instead, I have revised as my own thinking has changed and the political environment has changed. Now, I write stories to try and communicate my ideas. What follows is a section from one of the stories that I am writing.

Alternative Principles

"You can't do that," Josh heard the angry call from a man in the crowd.

"If we apply Neo-liberal principles, you are right," responded the speaker, "but I am not talking Neo-liberal principles. We are arguing for the application of equality principles.

Let me state those principles again.

• A just and equal society or an equitable society,
• An education system that helps individuals discover their personal skill set and interests
• All people have their basic needs meet
• Everyone can have a vote in decision making
• Our use of natural resources must be sustainable."

Loud discussions broke out in the crowd. Some were calling for silence saying "Let him speak. We want to hear what he has to say."

As the crowd became quiet, the speaker picked up his dialogue.

"Of course, these principles require a change in the way that we measure progress in society. Growth and profit can no longer be the primary measures. There may be growth but it is not what we want to measure."

A mumble of discontent came from a group of well-dressed business men.

"We are proposing that we measure progress based on reducing the number of people living in poverty, the number of people who are finding satisfaction in what they do, the number of people who participate in decision making processes, the relative equality of access to resources, and the continued availability of natural resources." Continued the speaker.

"Are you saying that I will have to give up my yacht. My holiday home, and reduce my travel footprint?" A man at the back of the crowd called. "Why should I give up what I have worked for and give it to those who do not make the effort?"

"The government must refocus its spending on meeting the needs of the poor and stop propping up the rich. Since the government spent money (an IOU against the government - see below) into existence, this is possible. However, the government will place more emphasis on taxing those who extract wealth for themselves. Equality is not possible when there is a huge difference in incomes between the poorest and the wealthy. If business owners are not prepared to distribute the companies earnings equally to all workers then the government must implement wealth redistribution policies."

"We would also propose that local communities work toward meeting as many of their needs from local resources and that as a country we focus initially on being self-sustaining. It makes no sense to export primary products simply to re-import them as processed items when we could do that processing within the country. The end result of that is that as a country we are spending more on imports than we receive from exports."

"Nobody will pay tax on any earnings up to what has been calculated as the income necessary to live. Tax will be progressive beyond that reaching 100\% at five times the income necessary to live. Ideally, we would like to see all incomes being under three times the income necessary to live."

The crowd broke into groups, some arguing against the proposals and others discussing the viability of them. The proposals were clearly radical compared with the governments current direction. Josh joined a group that was discussing how the proposals could be implemented.

Notes

Money in an economy is created by the central bank when the government spends into the economy. The government uses taxes to ensure that people use the government currency and to remove excess money from the economy. See Modern Monetary Theory, Richard Murphy, or Steve Keen.