Neo-liberalism has had its day.
There are points throughout history where established cultures near a breaking point. Today is one of those days.
£13 trillion ($21tn) is the rough size of the US’s and Japan’s economies combined. That same £13 trillion (and this actually a conservative estimation) has been hoarded and hidden from tax by a mere (estimated) 90,000 individuals.
I don’t think any one individual can truly comprehend what this £13 trillion could have been effectively used for. To find a cure for cancer, to vaccinate millions of vulnerable people in third world countries, to fund an almost infinite supply of scientific research or to provide free education for millions of children worldwide.
This is what has happened under the culture of neo-liberalism. The right has found it fitting to shift the blame onto “benefit scroungers”. What is apparent instead that this has been a mere smokescreen for a far wider problem. We have also been encouraged to not question and even idolise these “wealth creators”.
As Labour members we must accept that our party had helped facilitate such actions, we’re not innocent in all this.
I can only hope that one day soon, the established culture will finally break.
Max
You raise some very good points but the comparison with GDP data is actually meaningless. GDP and a lump sum of money simply can not be compared.
I think the harder part here is how we respond to this in a way that is credible and puts forward serious policies at the next general election.
“I don’t think any one individual can truly comprehend what this £13 trillion could have been effectively used for…”
There is no question of ‘using’ this £13trillion as it’s private money. The question we have to ask is how much revenue has been lost. If the return on this investment were 3% p.a. and it was taxed at 30%, we would be looking at £121bn in revenue; an enormous sum by any standards. But then we have to consider how much of this concerns UK tax payers rather than Russian Oligarchs or US billionaires. (And lets not forget those countries such as India that are effectively tax havens but still accept our foreign aid contributions.)
A key component of these efforts would be more effective international co-operation, and we know that that can be extremely slow in coming. As a national party of the UK, I think we would have to be realistic about what a Miliband government would be able to achieve in a single term. The developing countries that are most vulnerable to this problem (Christian Aid estimates that they lose $160bn a year from tax avoidance and evasion), are in a very weak position when it comes to facing up to those who practice aggressive tax avoidance.
We can talk about this as a ‘culture’ but changes in technology and lax tax laws have simply meant that people can do this and so they do. It’s unrealistic to expect people to volunteer to pay more tax than necessary; and I can’t help noticing that 99% of people who say otherwise in their twenties, are singing a different tune if and when they become richer in their fifties.
The important thing for our party is that we put forward realistic proposals that don’t sound too good to be true.