I'm pretty sure you're right that some vested interests need to be confronted (the pensioners) and some people need to be forced back into work - but where are the jobs? I don't understand why we can't make bricks - we always have, historically. We can make drones too. Why doesn't someone set up a factory for those, if that's what we need?
Hello Henry, very interesting post. I am a naive english 25 year old literature lover. In a spirit of friendly engagement, could I ask some questions? A) Given that half the growth of the past 20 years has gone to the richest 1%, how will more growth be the solution? Plus no mention of climate change and planetary boundaries, also a concern with AI. B) No mention of a wealth tax, redistribution, or the fact that the rich are inflating asset prices: how could a propertied democracy exist if the property is all owned by billionaires? C) Completely agree that there’s a lack of courage, selflessness, ambition etc etc, but isn’t that because many of the things we must do: energy independence via nuclear and renewables, building eco-houses that thermoregulate themselves, thereby shredding utility bills, going mostly plant-based to restore the beauty & ecosystems of the UK & free up land for nature & better human infrastructure; focusing on public luxury and private sufficiency rather than pushing everyone to feel like resentful, dissatisfied Steinbeckian "temporally embarrassed millionaires… are portrayed as uneconomic idealistic fantasies, but aren’t they actually the hard-nosed realities we need to face? No more pandering to a public told every consumer want (e.g. meat every day) is their right, damn the ethical, economic, and ecological consequences, no more allowing corpos to sell us Ultra processed foods and an ultra processed "social” media etc. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!
Do you have sources for these claims? In general, countries with higher growth rates have higher levels of income and wealth for most people, e.g. compare the median person in the USA to Mexico. The stagnation of wages in the UK is, I agree, a central problem, but less growth has not been the solution to that, and higher taxes, including a wealth tax, will not increase wages either. No are they very effectives taxes. Sweden and Denmark no longer use such taxes.
And there is already quite a lot of redistribution in the UK. According to the ONS:
The richest fifth of people's mean equivalised household income before taxes and benefits (£116,600) was 12.2 times larger than the poorest fifth (£9,600); however, this gap reduced to 3.3 times larger (£85,100 and £25,700, respectively) after all taxes and benefits.
Original income inequality (before taxes and benefits) was 47.6% as measured by the Gini coefficient, and reduced by 20.8 percentage points to 26.8% for final income inequality (after taxes and benefits), highlighting the redistributive effect of taxes and benefits.
As for climate change, it is of course very important, and a carbon tax would be welcome, but putting the UK on a Net Zero policy is both unfeasible (it’s a lie!) and not going to change very much about total global emissions. There are options for clean energy production, like nuclear, which Britain has refused to implement.
We need a politician who can explain to the public why the triple lock can’t continue, and how living in gerontocracy affects pensioners’ grandchildren, and not run scared the moment these voters threaten to vote for the other side. We need a health minister, who won’t use emotional rhetoric, who will plainly state that NHS should and will be modelled on a comparable European country’s more successful system, not on the American one (the usual scare tactic). In short, we need someone with a spine, who is also a good communicator.
Couldn’t agree more. We need to scrap the triple lock, reform the NHS, and do everything else you are suggesting. Britain is not “ungovernable”, it’s badly governed. I flinch every time I see some entitled pensioner claim “they’ve paid all their life” or politician wax lyrical about “our beloved NHS”. No other nation is expected to “love” their healthcare system, not even in Scandinavian countries (I lived in one), they expect reliable, high quality services and above all, accountability- there is precious little of that in the sacred NHS, where scandal after scandal happens yet heads never roll. I grew up in still-communist Poland, and this staff’s immunity to consequences (as long as they were loyal Party members) reminds me very strongly of that system. Why is the NHS, incidentally, one of the biggest employers in the world, while the German healthcare system, serving a bigger population, isn’t? The total fertility rate has been steadily falling, but maternity scandals are blamed on the lack of staff/underfunding? Surely we don’t need as many midwives as we used to?
I'm pretty sure you're right that some vested interests need to be confronted (the pensioners) and some people need to be forced back into work - but where are the jobs? I don't understand why we can't make bricks - we always have, historically. We can make drones too. Why doesn't someone set up a factory for those, if that's what we need?
Because the cost of doing business in the UK makes most businessmen of sound mind choose to take their trade elsewhere.
Britain has been slowly strangled by its own bureaucracy and its unwillingness to face the fact that good things are hard won and easily squandered.
Hello Henry, very interesting post. I am a naive english 25 year old literature lover. In a spirit of friendly engagement, could I ask some questions? A) Given that half the growth of the past 20 years has gone to the richest 1%, how will more growth be the solution? Plus no mention of climate change and planetary boundaries, also a concern with AI. B) No mention of a wealth tax, redistribution, or the fact that the rich are inflating asset prices: how could a propertied democracy exist if the property is all owned by billionaires? C) Completely agree that there’s a lack of courage, selflessness, ambition etc etc, but isn’t that because many of the things we must do: energy independence via nuclear and renewables, building eco-houses that thermoregulate themselves, thereby shredding utility bills, going mostly plant-based to restore the beauty & ecosystems of the UK & free up land for nature & better human infrastructure; focusing on public luxury and private sufficiency rather than pushing everyone to feel like resentful, dissatisfied Steinbeckian "temporally embarrassed millionaires… are portrayed as uneconomic idealistic fantasies, but aren’t they actually the hard-nosed realities we need to face? No more pandering to a public told every consumer want (e.g. meat every day) is their right, damn the ethical, economic, and ecological consequences, no more allowing corpos to sell us Ultra processed foods and an ultra processed "social” media etc. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!
Do you have sources for these claims? In general, countries with higher growth rates have higher levels of income and wealth for most people, e.g. compare the median person in the USA to Mexico. The stagnation of wages in the UK is, I agree, a central problem, but less growth has not been the solution to that, and higher taxes, including a wealth tax, will not increase wages either. No are they very effectives taxes. Sweden and Denmark no longer use such taxes.
And there is already quite a lot of redistribution in the UK. According to the ONS:
The richest fifth of people's mean equivalised household income before taxes and benefits (£116,600) was 12.2 times larger than the poorest fifth (£9,600); however, this gap reduced to 3.3 times larger (£85,100 and £25,700, respectively) after all taxes and benefits.
Original income inequality (before taxes and benefits) was 47.6% as measured by the Gini coefficient, and reduced by 20.8 percentage points to 26.8% for final income inequality (after taxes and benefits), highlighting the redistributive effect of taxes and benefits.
As for climate change, it is of course very important, and a carbon tax would be welcome, but putting the UK on a Net Zero policy is both unfeasible (it’s a lie!) and not going to change very much about total global emissions. There are options for clean energy production, like nuclear, which Britain has refused to implement.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/theeffectsoftaxesandbenefitsonhouseholdincome/2024
We need a politician who can explain to the public why the triple lock can’t continue, and how living in gerontocracy affects pensioners’ grandchildren, and not run scared the moment these voters threaten to vote for the other side. We need a health minister, who won’t use emotional rhetoric, who will plainly state that NHS should and will be modelled on a comparable European country’s more successful system, not on the American one (the usual scare tactic). In short, we need someone with a spine, who is also a good communicator.
Couldn’t agree more. We need to scrap the triple lock, reform the NHS, and do everything else you are suggesting. Britain is not “ungovernable”, it’s badly governed. I flinch every time I see some entitled pensioner claim “they’ve paid all their life” or politician wax lyrical about “our beloved NHS”. No other nation is expected to “love” their healthcare system, not even in Scandinavian countries (I lived in one), they expect reliable, high quality services and above all, accountability- there is precious little of that in the sacred NHS, where scandal after scandal happens yet heads never roll. I grew up in still-communist Poland, and this staff’s immunity to consequences (as long as they were loyal Party members) reminds me very strongly of that system. Why is the NHS, incidentally, one of the biggest employers in the world, while the German healthcare system, serving a bigger population, isn’t? The total fertility rate has been steadily falling, but maternity scandals are blamed on the lack of staff/underfunding? Surely we don’t need as many midwives as we used to?