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@dazinism@social.coop

2026-07-24 09:48 UTC

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social I remember, shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, many progressive economists screaming about the ridiculousness of considering the finance of countries to be similar to households and implementing austerity. Yet here we are with massively degraded public services and many local authorities teetering on bankruptcy. The path taken after the financial crisis was ideological and sadly, due to the continued capture of government by the wealthy, that path massively favoured the wealthy. Quantitative Easing and a very long period of incredibly low interest rates facilitated accelerated transfer of wealth upwards to the wealthy. Amazingly all the time since 2008 governments kept spending tight when they could have borrowed at incredibly low rates & put it into building a strong economy. Various ideological positions are held as unbreakable (eg. The Fiscal Rules) that hold things back. /cont

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  • @dazinism@social.coop 2026-07-24 10:23

    @GeofCox@climatejustice.social I think Land Value Tax is interesting as its not possible to hide land or send it off-shore to avoid tax Also bringing capital gains equal to income tax should help and close a route used to wiggle into low taxes Wealth tax, windfall taxes when some sector suddenly makes amazing profits (particularly when lots of people are suffering due to the same factors - eg. energy prices due to the wars in Ukraine and Iran) Many things governments do without much transparency which shifts wealth to the rich (eg. those wars (energy prices + huge spending on military hardware) Thing that amazes me is that the whole money/market system is entirely constructed in our heads. We can change any of it. Could even change all of it. Likely due to the level of control the wealthy have over media & government the breadth of debate is limited Improving democracy is a good path. Recent stuff in Taiwan often mooted, but theres much more - Citizens Assemblies, Participatory Budgeting etc. cont/

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