Inequality is killing the UK economy | Armando Iannucci | New Statesman
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- “It’s inequality, stupid.” With Armando Iannucci
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The trickle down economics of Liz Truss and the Conservative Party “is a lie” - Adrienne Buller
“Something is broken and it’s getting worse”, why are the rich far richer and the poor far poorer in Britain than in Europe? To answer this question Armando Iannucci and Anoosh Chakelian are joined by Dominic Watters, a social worker living on the breadline who campaigns against food insecurity and wrote Social Distance in Social Work: Covid Capsule One, and Adrienne Buller, director of research at the Common Wealth think tank and author of The Value of a Whale.
They examine why, in the UK economy, the rich are richer and the poor are poorer than in other European countries. The income gap is the largest it has been in ten years, food-bank use has doubled since 2014 and nearly a third of low-income families are unable to heat their homes; meanwhile the richest 1 per cent of households in the UK are worth £3.6 million each.
The panel also discusses living in fuel and food deserts, how hostility toward the “undeserving poor” is baked into the welfare system, and whether a minister for income inequality might be one potential solution.
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The writer, satirist and broadcaster Armando Iannucci, returns to the New Statesman Podcast to co-host our third series of Westminster Reimagined. In six special episodes Iannucci explores parts of British public life he believes to be broken, and is joined by guests from inside and outside Westminster to work out how to fix things
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"Snobbery has silenced the poor for too long", wise words Dominic.That exact sentence needs to go up on huge billboards nationwide. Brilliantly accurate. Well said.
Yeah the poor are so quiet and demure.
@@benitolazio8193 Quieter than they have been in the history of mankind. Demure, I wouldn't claim.
If only this were the truth. "The poor" that is snobbery in itself. Disenfranchised, marginalised, manipulated and disregarded. Menticide (the killing of one's mind) being complete, utterly, numb, predictable and pacified almost drone-like. These people become poorer through lack of power and proper representation. Until some mental maniac comes along and becomes their hero. Then comes the inevitable literal witch hunting. This is Europe!
@@hilaryporter7841 spot on
Capitalist Democracy!
Voting with ballots is for suckers, voting with money is a much better idea. Don't fund the industry, fund the individual and the individuals will fund the industry, a demand driven economy.
"The People are The Government" is about equality and voice, it is a flat democracy because participants are equally funded and is achieved with Conditional Basic Income in a Congressional Crowd Fund.
"The Economy is The Congress" is about diversity and opportunity, it is a parabolic democracy because wealth is distributed unevenly and is achieved with Unconditional Basic Income.
All this is paid for by a 1% transaction tax on goods and services, that over time could render all other taxes obsolete.
Money based democracy is a Political Filter that has many advantages over ballot based deomcracy; it is non-binary, dynamic, periodic, forgiving, altruistic, responsive, immediate, diverse and eliminates many causes of corruption. In it's simplest terms, all tax revenue in a period is divided equally into each Citizen's Crowd Fund Account, and Politicians run Campaigns in the Congressional Crowd Fund the citizens buy into. Ballot based voting is a political filter that leads to strong leadership. Together they make a powerful combination. Apart, they are not as powerful as together.
The Congressional Crowd Fund politically adehers to three principles of Democracy; Everyone has an equal vote/amount of money, Participation is not obligitory, and the way that you vote is Private. If someone does not participate in a period, the value of the participants' vote is proportionally increased. Peoples privicy is theirs alone to make public, although in certain circumstances, greater transparency may be desired or required. [For example if you were a Tory whip and wanted to force your membership to vote against their will and those of their constituients on a subject like, say, Fracking.]
The Congressional Crowd Fund could be introduced as a filter gradually by applying it to Foreign Aid. Foreign aid campaigns advertise in the Crowd Fund and the Citizens fund these campaigns on a monthly basis. Campaigns would be required to provide accountability through the Blog and Accounts section their campaign, they would need to maintain credibility because a Citizen can always change their mind next time round.
When you vote with money, it becomes clear the Crowd Fund is a managed micro economy. This is why I say The Economy is The Congress. Dental care is arguably not covered by the NHS in England. It is far better in this case to fund the individual rather than the industry. When I was 7 I got a filling on the NHS, not because I needed one, but because that was how the dentist got paid,.. nuts! Much better give the individual some money so they can just pay the Dentist when they need to see the Dentist. Is the Dental industry in any trouble? No, because it's private. This is why UBI is parabolically democratic in a real economy.
Emergency services such as A&E, Defence, Fire, Police and fundamental services like central banking, foreign affairs, civil service and justice do need to be managed at a national level with strong leadership and solid mandate.
Issues such as infrastructure, rail, road, energy, big national projects that require alot of money, and some aspects of law, should be proposed and presented in a Congressional Crowd Fund, if not for full but partial funding. It's amazing how many propositions could be mitigated by simply saying "Start a campaign in the Crowd Fund, and see who buys into it?" for example: 'Give mothers £8k to stay home with children' (Telegraph 2022.10.23) I say decide that democratically in the Crowd Fund by seeing who buys into it. Being able to start a Congressional Crowd Fund Campaign is something any citizen can do.
Issues such as bin collection, education, general health (seeing a doctor, physiotherapy, mental health, teeth etc), housing and nourishment, the need for a mobile phone, keeping yourself clothed, socialising, fitness, should be individual choices, funded by UBI in partenership with private enterprise. These are decisions individuals should make for themselves.
If you want a Ferrari, you could theoretically start a campaign in the crowd fund, but I think you would soon see it was democratically unlikely, and you're going to have to do something about it yourself. However in reality... the Crowd Fund is essencially altruistic, has to have some benefit to the community, but above all Democratic through equal funding.
So, thankyou, that's my idea for a Capitalist Democracy, I would love to know your thoughts.
* AI, Technological Unemployment & UBI th-cam.com/video/CPre-wvF6XM/w-d-xo.html
* Gary Stevenson: th-cam.com/video/3ahL8AbvzbI/w-d-xo.html
* Sir Humphrey Politics, Sir Humphrey Economics, Sir Humphrey Democracy A Very British Democracy | Yes, Prime Minister | BBC Comedy Greats th-cam.com/video/xzfNEF0e-y4/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/JnnjY823e-w/w-d-xo.html
* Tom Seeley: Honeybee Democracy: th-cam.com/video/JnnjY823e-w/w-d-xo.html
* Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig makes the case that our democracy has become corrupt with money, leading to inequality that means only 0.02% of the United States population actually determines who's in power. Lessig says that this fundamental breakdown of the democratic system must be fixed before we will ever be able to address major challenges like climate change, social security, and student debt. This is not the most important problem, it's just the first problem. th-cam.com/video/PJy8vTu66tEF/w-d-xo.htmlCC 2
From an Australian’s point of view there seems to be a priority on protection of offshore tax havens and London’s money laundering capability from E.U. legislators at the ultimate cost of the least privileged.
Like the U.S. the common denominator is Rupert Murdoch and his anti-fact cabal.
YES!
you have hit the nail on the head mate... its not just the richest 1% they keep beating the drum about... its the massive coporations that dodge the UK's business tax... its bollox... look at the PM rishi's wife worth hundreds of millions and has non dom status and pays very very very low tax to india and doesnt have to pay bugger all here!!!!
@@John-qs2xr where no oligarchs fly
You have got a very good point David
Spot on
I loved hearing this young father speaking about the reality of what’s happening on the ground when living in poverty - he spoke such common sense that really resonated with me. He’s an excellent example of you can succeed despite barriers. He had a clear vision and he worked his plan. So inspirational 🙏
Yet everyone's driving round in new cars new tackle better dressed
Let’s see - who has the money??? Yes, deliberate blindness.
It was Sunak who said they'd write off losses/fraud in the small business loans. He had to backtrack in further statements, but there's no evidence that they've ever reclaimed money. Meanwhile NatWest, which was in public ownership, was sold off on the back of that money flow. Rewarding failure once again.
Rewarding the rich for failure, then blaming the poor for being poor through lack of effort.
Voices like Dominic's are sorely needed, thank you for boosting the voice of this intelligent and driven young man who speaks for so many people. More discussions like this please!
I had an experience at 15 of living with my family in emergency housing, and Dominic is right that poverty wasn't discussed before. Too few politicians understand what poverty really means, and Dominic's articulate descriptions based on real insight are just what politicians needs to hear. The vast majority of politicians have no life experience that enables them to relate to the plight of the poor, and it's a massive barrier to better policy formulation.
It's not just that politicians don't understand, it's more that many of the key decision makers fundamentally despise the poor. It's not a question of making them relate, it's a question of keeping them away from the levers of power because they hate the most vulnerable in society
The young man was so articulate.
I liked it when he said "welfare and well being" in a loop for around 15 minutes
Interesting discussion. It’s so good to hear these people speak about these disparities.
Why are we using the euphemism “Food poverty”, “fuel poverty”, “child poverty”?
It’s POVERTY, end of.
I grew up in socialist Sweden in the 1970s and 1980s and got involved in politics on the right. At that point, all the various utilities in Sweden were publicly owned and when the right won the elections in Sweden in 1991, they started privatising utilities. But we always said "privatisation but not for the sake of privatisation", i.e. only if it brings added benefit. I think we can now safely say that privatising utilities was a massive mistake but what REALLY makes me angry is that most politicians now put their hands up and claim that they cannot sort it out because of "the markets". Which is complete rubbish.
Third Position is the remedy.
@@benitolazio8193 You mean like Blair's "Third Way"? PFI contracts, Academies, schools as businesses, doctors bidding for patients and no legal aid? Spare me.
@@JayGriffinblaze He may be refering to the the resursuregent fascist ideology known as third positionism, which combines particular anticapitalist economicy policy with extreme left-wing
Full respect to Dominic, an educated, articulate and inspirational person. One thing that did not seem to me to be given sufficient consideration is that we should be talking less about increasing welfare and more about minimising the number of people who are dependent upon it in the first place. To answer the question "is the government doing enough to close the gap" it is painfully obvious that almost every single policy and decision ends up, and in fact appears to be designed specifically to widen the gap. One small example, the introduction of E10 petrol with E5 becoming significantly more expensive. E5 fuel is needed for most older vehicles and who in the main owns older cars? Correct, the least well off because they can't afford newer ones. Politicians are politicians because they don't have the gumption to get a real job in the real world.
Same with VED - old 2l £250, new one £165
@@simontemplate more like £295 for an older car. >2001 And £0 for a newer car. 2001> both based on a 1.6 diesel.
A very valuable contribution from Dominic, i hope you'll have him on again.
If there is one single thing labour should promise to do, immediately is address the poverty. It's absurd that we can't feed our nation. It makes me so angry that the Tories talk of cuts and austerity when people in their millions are literally starving. It's obscene. 25% of children for god's sake. What kind of 'ruch' nation allows that !?!?!?
And yet, huge numbers of working class people, members of my own extended family included, still go on about benefit scroungers and immigrants coming here to live on benefits. As though a life in abject poverty is in some way easy. Usually those that do have never lived a day of their lives on benefits. I've never had to claim benefits, but have worked with those that do. An awful, degrading existence of daily suffering for many. Politicians and the Right Wing press perpetuate such myths, to keep the 95% who own only 5% of the countries wealth, fighting against each other, rather than holding those responsible to account. Divide and Rule.
The only thing I find shocking is that there are people in this country who don't understand every single word of this at a fundamental level.
Dominic is a hidden gem. Thank you for speaking our truth! 😊
I went on a guided trip around Kent country side not too long ago which was brilliant. The local guide made the excellent point that "the garden of England" was never a compliment to the area or a reference to its soil fertility perhaps, instead it was really a scathing remark from richer landowners from the rest of England that were disparaging Kent for its age old nature of being a county made up of many small holdings and various farms held in many hands which they deemed as inefficient as it wasn't in control of a few corporations that had created huge mega estates, instead resembling more of a "garden" ....
Correct, except it wasn’t corporations, it was aristocrats. Britain more than any other country on the planet has most land concentrated in fewest hands.
Trickle down economics : Poor person is hungry. Give huge amount of food to a rich person and hope some of that food finds its way to the poor person.
It's called bread crumb economics!
They buy food , so your silly tale doesn't work , envy is such a toddlers emotion.
@@benitolazio8193 Envy? Someone can't read...
Alterenatively: Poor person is hungry. Poor person gets a job and works hard. Poor person is no longer hungry.
@@benitolazio8193 No, you are deluded! This is reference to how some very rich are given more, and in fact often help themselves!
Poverty is a tool of government.
No it isn't - it's a reflection of our society. We the people could eliminate poverty if enough of us truly cared to do our bit ourselves - rather than staying home doing nothing, and expecting the government to fix all our problems.
And government is a tool of the rich.
@@cgo225 not inside the Liberal paradigm. Liberal Democracy = rule by international finance and the central Bankers
All Liberal Democracies in the West are heading in the same direction on all the big issues particularly with mass immigration.
@@cgo225 Govt gives tax breaks to the rich and taxes the poor disproportionately to their income.
@@cgo225 As Greta would say. blah blah blah. What nonsense.
The frustrating thing is lots of people seem to think it's not possible to have food or nutrition issues in this country. Their concept of starvation and poverty is images of African kids with hollow eyes and big tummies, so if they don't see that here they think it's not an issue. They won't even listen to the people crying out for help because they assume if you have clothes on and a TV you can't be poor just "financially irresponsible." It's disgusting.
The right wing media has pumped out these lies for decades. Malnutrition can also mean obseisty. Obesity has exploded in recent decades because cheap food is processed and high calories. It's the market that's caused this mess, yet most people in the UK blame the poor themselves. But before mass advertising and processed food, the poor were not obsese, so is the argument that poor people suddenly became fat, or what? The rights arguments don't even make logical sense.
People may be fat, but they are starving nutritionally, you obviously didn’t hear the bit that stated nutritional food is the most expensive, and this is clearly visible when you do a basic shop.
@@EvsEntps This is utterly ignorant or a cynical playing with words.
Obesity in the poor isn’t from eating large quantities, it comes from eating cheap “empty” calories. These are foods that leave children short of vitamins, minerals - micronutrients. The body transforms these “simple” carbohydrates very quickly into sugar and stores it as fat: and this, along with the lack of micronutrients, triggers hunger. The response to hunger of someone without enough money is to get more “empty” calories.
If you have one pound to spend, no food in the house and no electricity left, are you going to buy your kids a nice, healthy lettuce or a loaf of cheap bread? The bread will make them feel full. Or a bag of chips from the chippie will warm them up.
I've lived in Indonesia, I know what real hunger and poverty are. The idea that the poor in the UK are starving is ridiculous and offensive to those people who really are. Poor nutrition is a real problem, but it's a luxury first-world problem.
@@EvsEntps Your comment demonstrates prejudice and ignorance of the facts.
Can’t see the present Labour Party wanting to change the system to reduce inequality
they don't go after business fraud, because that's where the party donations comes from
And Labour are propped up by union money and liberal donors , what's your point ? Labour MP's went to private schools too you know.
@@benitolazio8193 the point of a union is to stand up for workers rights, and the broad definition of a liberal is to stand up for individuals rights if these arnt things you support then i dunno what to say to you to be frank if you support the rich becoming richer at the expense of the masses then sure carry on voting tories i guess
not gonna sit here and pretend labours the perfect solution but its a step in the right direction
true.
This podcast was amazing, but breaks my heart at the sametime.
All my blessings to Domonic and his daughter, I wish you all the best for the future and in all your endeavours. 🙏🏿
This was an excellent discussion.
As an American, I felt like I’ve been watching the UK basically fall apart over the last decade; it’s been eye opening and upsetting.
You still have better public transit than us, tho
and healthcare
@@5ynthesizerpatel yeah but it sounds like even the NHS isn’t what it used to be
Hi, well-spotted, but it began before it became evident to the outside world. I am a Dutchwoman who's lived in the US and who's been in the UK for nearly two decades. What Armando said, that they use the poor here to balance the books, that they sacrifice the poor like cattle, that's what I've been saying too. They deliberately keep them poor because people who are poor are relatively defenseless. (Philip Alston, NYU, former UN rapporteur: "poverty is a political choice". His successor at the UN, Olivier De Schutter, Leuven University, wants to make povertyism illegal, just like other forms of discrimination.) Armando said it's been going on for 20, 30 years. That's interesting; for me, it is hard to know what went on before I got here. The UK is so different that I couldn't explain it to my friends and colleagues abroad at all in the past, but what a mess this country is is now increasingly becoming clear to the rest of the world. Yes, public transport is a different story relative to the US (although trains are outrageously expensive in the UK relative to the Netherlands, depending on which company operates a certain track). A lot of it has to do with the density of the population, in any country, so I think it depends on where exactly you are, too.
@@Neddoest I don't know what it "used to be" but I don't like the frequent sexism and gerontophobia in the NHS and if that's there, then povertyism is likely to be around too. (See my other comment, too.) Covid has caused huge backlogs, but that is the case in my normally very well organized home country the Netherlands too. I have read that more and more nurses are leaving the NHS to work for companies like Amazon, because the pay is much better. General doctor's practices are struggling badly too. Not enough staff is an overall problem. (They chased a lot of medical staff out of the country, too.)
@@5ynthesizerpatel for now! You Brits need to fight like `wet chickens` for the NHS! It seems that the current party in power aren`t that interested in looking after your once superb health care!
Thank you Dominic, for your testimony, for speaking for so many of us. I have been living through, as a single mother, everything you describe. I’m a SEND TA and, apart from my own poverty related struggles, I also witness our children’s struggles. I feel broken.
The whole of my adult life I have I heard people complaining about immigration from Eastern Europe, and I've always wondered how people couldn't see that this meant we were a country people wanted to come to. I would mutter quietly under my breath, 'be thankful, one day the boot may be on the other foot'. I thought it would take decades before living standards here were below those of our East European neighbours, in the end it took only a matter of years. The positive is that with concerted will and determination you can turn the economic fortunes of a country around. But it does take will and determination, are we desperate enough yet?
I often find myself reluctant to visit back home - Poland, because of how modern and prosperous it has become. I genuinely feel like I'm coming from a poorer country to visit rich cousins and I live in the very centre of Birmingham. Can't even imagine what it would be like for people who come from the deprived towns and cities of the north. I used to visit one of them, Preston, for work and I was devastated looking at their high street - most of places closed down, boarded up, the centre literally dying, whole neighborhoods falling into disarray.
It's amazing to me how ignorant many brits are about the rest of Europe. I lived in Slovakia for a few years and I think most brits assume its poor and decrepfi, when because its to equal, everyone has their basic needs met. There are issues with gypsy poverty, so not claiming its perfect, but the development has been incredible in only 15 years. Eastern Europe is now almost on a par with the UK
@@mdaniels6311 Very true. Never heard of a food bank when I lived over there.
Yeah there's this thing that happens with mass migration it's called wage squeeze , and it affects Britain's housing and health service too , and neither Labour or blue Labour will address it because globalist capitalism reigns supreme.
@@JerzyFeliksKlein yes because all our jobs and money went to Poland and the rest to turn them away from Russia .
Poland supplied Thatcher with coal during the miners strike so thank you Poland for destroying Britain and our prosperity.
Birmingham is hardly a paradise , what towns and cities in the north .
Since Thatcher massive increase in Asians and the depopulation of the English protestants.
So the towns and cities have adapted to lower income and fewer people .
All thanks to you lot from Eastern Europe and Asia .
This is an excellent piece. I can think of a lot of people that I would like to sit down in front of it. Many, many thanks to all the contributors.
The problem with people on low income isn’t just not earning enough money to put food on the table, but also to pay rent and energy costs.
Let me share a personal experience about 15 years ago. My children were still in primary school and I was receiving full housing benefit, still didn’t cover my rent as they decided the rent was unreasonably too high by £200 a month. So I still had to top up my rent. Ironically a family living just 3 doors down from me living in exactly the same size house but in worse condition didn’t have double glazing like the on I was in. Any this family was housed there by the council on temporary accommodation and the rent was £200 more than mine and they got full rent from housing benefit. Same size family same age group children as mine and earning the same money as we worked in the same place.
After about a year the minimum pay went up and pay went up.
I received a letter from the housing saying they have re - assessed my claim and I no longer qualify for full housing benefit and as a result my benefit has been reduced by £45 a week. This made me very concerned as I was already paying £200 a month to top up my rent.
I rang the housing benefit section and they explained that my income has gone over the threshold to qualify for full amount.
I asked them by how much has my income gone over ? I was horrified when they told me the amount, it’s just £1 week.
By earning £1 more than I should has made me liable for £45 a week.
You should be grateful you get ANYTHING. Entitlement in all its glory! Britain has one of the most generous welfare systems in the world , unlike the middle east.
We should challenge the assertion that taxes are unduly high in the UK. Civilised countries spend 40%+ of GDP on the public sector. George Osborne’s stated goal was to get the UK down to 30% - in the middle of a recession. Of course this was going to end in tears.
Taxes are super low in the UK relative to many other countries, I lived in NL for 13 years and taxes where way higher, but that’s ok, because infrastructure is amazing
Should try Puerto Rico, taxes through the roof, all goods have to pass through the USA (much like they're aiming for in the UK..all international flights now go to England only, food standards dropped to USA level, agriculture laws shifted to allow poisons in Crops) then we pay an extra 30% tax when it comes from USA to Puerto (for the honour of being a colony), no voting rights at all. Heavily abused and dictated by another nation. Sadly, much like my home country Wales. Home from home. I'd hate to see how the UK would cope being adopted by America. It would turn 3rd world overnight
@D C Yeah they just do all the work and buy all the goods and services. What are they like....
@D C "They", being the nurses, teachers, social workers, hospitality workers, tube / bus drivers, the cleaners and road menders, the utility maintenance engineers.
I am sure "they" would all love to pay more tax to see their environment float to a higher standard. They pay a very high proportion of net income on taxed expenses, like fuel - up to 75% of fuel pump price is tax,
As far as I am aware, hedge-fund managers are not assessed for UK tax in any formal way... despite recently soaking the UK treasury for money by shorting the pound.
@D C What nonsense. You must be an over-paid Tory.
Please have Gary's Economics on. He's the famous trader at Citibank who was the highest paid most successful trader in the world. He has a TH-cam channel and he's explaining about inequality and how it's destroying the British economy and people's lives.
He actually bet that inequality would increase and that's how he made the money for Citibank because he could see that the government would just growing inequality and ruining more and more lives.
Enough is enough.
Another vote for that here. Gary has opened my eyes
Armando we love you.
Dominic is so calm and powerful in his delivery. Absolutely amazing orator. Such a tragedy that we have to hear from him on such matters. But given that we do, and that he is so effective in his communication, I wish he had a huge platform to speak from. The country needs to hear voices like his.
Spot on Rymixxx
It will take looking at the money system itself and questioning the whole idea of debt and interest and who benefits from it and its effects on society. This should have been done decades ago but is not even questioned today. If people dont want to address the money system it is an absolute impossibility to change inequality, it is simply not possible for it is the cause.
Armando gives the Tories too much credit. They are aware there is a huge inequality problem, the only thing they wanna do is increase it just enough to the point where it doesn't cost them voters. Currently they are hoping thatvdemonising refugees will prove enough of a distraction
no immigration is another issue not an invention. But they will exploit it and lay the trap for Labour...The neo liberals are running out of levers to pull now though (hence austerity 2.0) which is quite scary in of itself.
"Demonising" ! Then why don't they stop them ? Garbage.
It's actually more insidious than this. It's part of a 2-pronged strategy. Increase inequality especially among groups they have identified are most likely to lack the ability to protect themselves from its multiplying effects (because they largely do not vote for them anyway) while disemminating propaganda and rhetoric blaming these people and those that support them for the problems in society thereby leeching some of the support from those in a slightly better position than those at the bottom (the so called 'red wall').
I don't understand why these clearly well informed panellists seem to behave and talk as though this isn't consciously chosen by those in power, as if simply informing the reliant minister will change anything... Stopping this grinding attack on the 99% is not going to come so long as we pretend this isn't actively selected by billionaires to all our detriment.
I live in Canada, but the writing is on the wall - this will be our future as well as money and greed is ruling the world. Sad but true. Keep up the fight.
UK government’s both Labour and conservative from Blair era, more conservative have always been on the side of big businesses and corporations.
As an example all you have to do is look at the zero hour contract system. It’s so heavily waited in favour of the businesses that people who are working weekends and bank holidays are still on their measly minimum pay. There’s people working more than 40 hours a week for the same firm for years and still have no job security.
Successive governments have created a system where people in poverty are in a never ending cycle of financial problems with no way out.
Armando, you're an excellent communicator. Maybe spend time with the guy on the breadline to see his experiences, how it affects his confidence, pride, dignity.
Gary's Economics, the famous Citibank trader who was paid the most in the world and was the best performing trader, he quit. He could see inequality was increasing and the government would do nothing to stop it so that's how he predicted his trades and was so successful. He's not educating people on TH-cam about the current economic system and how it gives everything to the rich and takes from the poor. He explains it in short videos with clear numbers.
Amando, you have the ability to humanize the reality, the problems and the fixes. Go for it. We need you. Millions need you.
The real problem is our tory government since 2010. Poverty, homelessness and inequality rising an awful lot since 2010. The United Nations sent a special envoy to the UK in 2015 and they condemned the UK for the high levels of poverty, homelessness and inequality etc And they said it was caused by our conservative governments austerity policies since 2010. And they said it absolutely wasn't necessary, but was purely a political decision and it started under the last tory government in the 1980's. And our economy hasn't really gone anywhere since 2010, even before the covid pandemic arrived, and the cost of living crisis & Ukraine war
It so interesting to hear a man tell the story of single parenting
There used to be this thing called socialism....
Dominic, nice one on all you are doing, but well f'd up you still struggle. Really appreciate your voice on this
This type of thing happens when those that purport to represent us aren’t us. I can’t see Labour even attempting to fix this, and that’s so depressing
Labour simply don't know what they're about anymore. Just look at their front benchers, listen to them - totally bland, no passion, appealing to no-one but themselves..... and still they don't understand why they keep losing elections that are there for the taking.
Labour has a fabulous business strategy. Even the boss of Tesco said so. People need to do more research. Not just use sound bits.
Because Labour are all private school too.
@@csharpe5787 Your joke made me LOL🙄
@@benitolazio8193 Starmer grew up working class, get your facts straight
Well, people voted for Brexit and the tories/Johnson. Didn't want the old commi Corbyn. You got what you voted for!
There is an old saying, whether it’s true on not. People get the government they deserve.
They need to take equal blame to tories they supported into power.
Shrink the state, cut red tape, deregulate and let profit making businesses responsible for our future. The reality of these Tory policies over the last decade are clear to see from that interview with Dominic. It's a long term shift away from the social democratic European model to a US style ultra libiterian approach with every individual fends for themselves and it's your own fault if you are poor.
We need to invest in people - our human resources- if we want a productive, and cohesive, economy and society.
This is precisely what Thatcher, Raegan, and subsequent governments did - for years - until it all resulted in the Great Recession of 2008 which was the direct result of unregulated institutions acting in totally dispicable ways only to be bailed out by the taxpayer. Are you sure you want the same again, so your children will pay the price in 20yrs time?
What a great Dad, no bullshit, clear and articulate.
What a wonderful chap Dominic is. He makes me proud to be British
Back in the day a road sweeper was a fully fledged council employee with proper pay and conditions and a final salary pension. It was likely that person had a council house .Fast forward to today that 'operative' is now working for a multinational with minimal T&C's.
But we can't all aspire and train to be road sweepers. Some of us will simply have to be engineers and doctors wether we want to or not.
@@galinor7 The point is ,we respect and look after everyone. Not all of us can be high flyers.
When you are poor in the USA and UK, you end up being behind on some of your bills. When that happens, the system is built to stomp on your face, with late fees, grind you into the ground, as your credit score assures you will get the highest interest rates. This is the result when money is more important than just understanding in the 21 century ever man, women and child should live with dignity. The rich and wealthy investment class has rigged the economic system and they won, while the citizens keep falling into poverty.
They both have the same type of Democratic models. Which are flawed. Other EU countries have better Democratic models like Netherlands and Germany. We have 2 democratic rooms. With both 2 different elections. We don't have house of the lords. We have local government elections which result in the "house of lord" type of chamber. And we have the main chamber that we also elect. And we have a lot more parties which have to work together. Also we don't have rich elite in our government which do not represent common people in the country.
Poverty, or the least well off, is a requirement of capitalism
@@darealdealuk i agree there must be some insentive to get money for something. But it depends if its really generating value or not. Just acquiring land + houses on it and milk out the people is not very beneficial to the economy. You just substract money from the market without actually providing more or better services if there is scarcity and not more newbuild houses. Thats toxic capitalism. Proper capitalism means good competition and proper value creation. And there should be an incentive for that.
@Aerism I don't think there's "toxic" or "proper" capitalism, just the capitalism that the human race has created, and which clearly needs to change
They have taken our dignity, next, it’s your rights as a human being.! 🏴🤝🏴⚖️
The UK has a systemic problem when even people working can't make ends meet; which was compounded by (1) Tory austerity since 2008, (2) Tory Brexit and (3) Labour missing in action as an opposition.
"Capitalism isn't broken, it's Fixed" Jimmy Dore
The current economy can't be made to work for the working class. It's not designed to do that in the first place. After the next economic crash, the inevitable crash, investment banking needs to be separated from client banking and credit.
This 100%^
Globalisation destroyed the nation state democracy decades ago unfortunately. We are ruled by international finance and the central Bankers.
Jury service pays 13p a mile, when petrol was 1,79 a litre, my Universal Credit person told me to lie and say I was unwell to not go to jury service. After the pay as you go meter scandal where the only customers who have paid for a meter, the installation cost and a premium on the supply cost are the poorest in society, the pay as you go system should be banned, universal credit should cover utilities supply or at very least the supplies should only be allowed to charge 1/2 the price to households earning under or at the minimum wage. This will fuel better paid jobs and reduce living costs to the poorest in society.
Adrienne Buller, yes, this is a POOR society. I am from Amsterdam and I've previously lived in the US, been in England for nearly 2 decades. I have had moments that I wanted to run out a local mid-sized Tesco supermarket SCREAMING because the poverty that I was surrounded by, the people who stand counting their coins to see whether they can afford toilet paper or what have you, it really got to me badly back then. This was 4, 5 years ago. I couldn't stand it any longer. I now find that shopping at a huge Tesco supermarket where a lot of people drive to, where more affluent people shop, improves my mood (although I mostly shop at Aldi and Lidl, which does not really have the poorest folks who sadly may insist on shopping at Tesco perhaps because they see it as English as Asda and Tesco have no foreign staff). The poverty here is so deep and so wide-spread, it's soul-destroying. And the people who are not poor here are often not really that much better off, actually. All the money is concentrated in the upper 10%.
Regarding the top-up vouchers that the many many people with ordinary prepayment meters receive by postal mail and need to wait for (haven't had mine for November yet either), it is possible for the energy companies to add the credit remotely when a customer tops up. I don't understand why this is not being done, that is, it is probably to force us onto smart meters. I was utterly FLOODED with calls and messages for a while telling me that I must make an appointment, that I must have a smart meter, which is not even true. At this point in time, we still have a choice. (In a few years' time, that may change.)
There are some of us in the UK that would like to make it as far as being in the 1% club & Would actually like to be in a higher tax band if it would go towards helping those less fortunate get on in life & to be given a fairer chance to get on the home owners ladder. Sadly, governments only tend to cater for the greedy. And the voters with no power are repeatedly lied to, conned & forced into accepting the sub-standard conditions & leadership that they didn't vote for. I'm glad we have Sunak but then I wasn't given any choice. Democracy?... What's the point of voting when you're forced to get given several different leaders that you never voted for?
It's been a broken, out-dated system with too many chiefs as well as too many Indians for too long!! Its over staffed in all the wrong area's & not staffed enough in the right one's. Why is there not enough staff to process the migrants quickly enough yet there are so many multiple bodies within parliament getting paid more than there worth to put there feet up, play candy-crush, fall asleep or just make enough noise to drown out what is being stated by the front benchers, slowing down & dragging on the whole process of any action, actually being taken.
Too many times, too many idea's have to be run by too many for approval before anything changes. Which is why this country is so slow to get anything right in time. All too often there is too much emphasis put on the petty PC & no real justification or accountability at the very least on the very serious breaches of position.
Democracy in the UK is a fallacy!! A huge lie the size of a bus that the government works for the majority of voters when in fact it has proven time & time again that it actually & actively works for the healthy-wealthy 1%ers & behind closed doors they all have a jolly good laugh about how ridiculous it all is & how they are all getting away with it at our expense while scoffing large gulps of expensive champagne.
I have some hope for Rishi & Suella & even Hunt if he does what he is told by the P.M. But in all honesty I strongly believe that they are all tared with the same brush like wolves in sheep's clothing! They are nothing more than licenced gangster's hiding under a thin veil of respectability! Lord Boothby wasn't & isn't the only one. And yet it continues to be the Boothby's of politics that continue to keep getting away with the same things that the working class gangster get's banged-up for, which is practically what the UK was built upon. i.e. entrepreneurial enterprise, invading, robbing others for the advantage & prosperity of the bullies that attempt to strike fear into the repressed .
11:00 Here in Ontario, Canada the government misspent $1,000,000,000 by giving it to businesses that weren't eligible for COVID relief while raising disability benefits to 1200 a month was seen as a waste of money.
Same here in uk. The government misspent/corruption 93 billion with failed systems failed ppe furlough fraud. Since then they've been calling anyone 50+ who is sick or disabled as economically inactive. Our social benefits system is inhumane and condemned by the university as to how the uk treat he disabled. Hundreds died going through the process but ppl arent aware because the mp Teresa coffey sat on the 5 reports. Ppl died through illness or suicide. It can take up to 2 years and many applications and finally a review in front of a judge! To be awarded any disability benefits. It's inhumane ✌
This guy is great. Thanks for this.
I left the UK for Australia in 1986 during the Thatcher year’s and prior to ‘86 I was involved in and with unions, including organising food parcels for NUM members who were on strike. It seems to me that the current Conservative party is implementing a form of Thatcherism that is now on ‘steroids’. The conservatives have never been concerned with poverty, including the working poor and they never will be. Unfortunately, the corporate media continues to manipulate voters and have contributed to the ongoing development of societal division which of course enables the powers that be to more easily assert their power in service of the wealthy elites.
I’m just not sure that’s true .. the real rise in wage inequality occurred in the 80s and was the consequence of very deliberate policies from a very right wing govt .. since then wage inequality hasn’t actually risen that much and the conservative (or at least some of them) seem to accept that it is too high and needs to be reduced
@@jsquire5pa the main NUM strike started during Thatchers reign in 1982 and was preceded by the National Geographic Association strike in Warrington, UK. The reduced standard of living in the UK and US is partly linked to Reagan & Thatcher implementing deregulation with financial institutions and wealth disparity continues at an ever increasing rate.
@@LoveFix2558 I’m afraid you haven’t answered my point at all and your historical facts aren’t event right …
@@jsquire5pa you don’t need to be afraid 😂
The inequality is that the Political Chumocracy have abandoned any pretext of being interested in what people want and have decided they will get what they are given
I wonder, how often is it that Tory politicians meet and talk to folk like Dominic. The very epitome of a self starter - someone who works hard, I imagine... I expect they would have a great deal of difficulty looking him in the eye when the subject turns to energy bills and feeding his daughter - the revelation that he doesn't have a readily accessible way to top up his pre-paid metere is extraordinary!. We need more people like him speaking up and telling everybody exactly how things *really* are.
The idea that looking after our poorest is better for the country's economy and overall well-being could well be a litmus test - could it be that the Tory philosphy is simpler and more unpleasant - that they simply *despise* the poor and the vulnerable and actually *want them* to continue to fail...
Because of IR35 legislation I currently pay a total pf 47% direct taxation before I pay all the indirect taxes. Happy to help.
Very converse eloquent and vital conversation. This needs looking at yesterday
The man speaks well. Comes across as very employable to me. Good luck to him. Would gladly help if he got in touch.
What really annoys me whenever a person asks a conservative MP why we can't tax the rich more their reasoning is that the majority of tax income overall already comes from the wealthiest. They never concider that as the country becomes more and more unequal it is obvious that the share of tax take from the wealthiest overall would increase without even raising the higher tax rates.
So they don't even have to raise taxes the take is automatically rising. I think people on minimum wage shouldn't pay any tax. Maybe then they wouldn't need a food bank.
Great discussion. Thank you.
Well that was depressing.
Why didn't you bring in GarysEconomics who understands this stuff & has proved it. Too working class for you. Throughout my life I have seen the same. Canada/Danmark/France even Greece & Spain where I lived and worked are not this way.
You mean, why don't they bring him on again?
th-cam.com/video/hcLw8cT5Lgs/w-d-xo.html
They had him on in October, so hardly "too working class for them".
Don't alienate your own side, especially when it is the people who are on benefits having their say and being heard. 'Don't get mad get even' is not about revenge, it's about making your servant instead of your master. Anger is a call to action, but not a plan. You should pay attention to it, but not base your strategy on it. And even Gary himself says its not talking to the people making the bad policies that will change things. What will change things will be voters, and getting everyone to vote the Tories out.
We featured an interview with @GarysEconomics a few weeks ago:
th-cam.com/video/hcLw8cT5Lgs/w-d-xo.html
Also Gary appeared on the last series of Westminster Reimagined th-cam.com/video/jqDwyBcOP_w/w-d-xo.html
His contributions were very valuable both times, we hope you enjoy them.
sometimes, it is better to make a request instead of throwing accusation or making insinuations. this is how leftists run circular firing squads, hence why the left never get successes like the "wicked right wing " do. turns out they have interviewed GarysEconomics.
Sincere and Insightful.
I really like this panel. Wonderful bunch of intelligent empathetic dynamic people.
Living in Sweden I was shocked to hear that all kids in Britain do not get free school meals- here we have had compulsory free school meals for all children from nursery to sixth form since the 1940-ies!!! No wonder the health among the poor is so bad in England when the only thing they learn to eat is cheap chips and crisps! A society that calls itself modern ought to provide healthy food for children- studies have shown that the free and nutricious school meals have actually been a part of Sweden´s way from a poor country to a fairly ok society. My children visited, as a part of their school curriculum , a school in London ,and came back totally disgusted w the food they were served- all chips, crisps and sweet drinks! That is no proper food for kids to learn on, keeping alert through a school day and become healthy adults. Here almost all schools serve a choice of two dishes to choose from and vegetarian and also a huge salad buffe ( something that has hugely improved since my schooldays!). No crisps as long as the eye can see. Sweden is certainly no paradise but at least kids here get one proper nutricious meal a day and Britain ought to hang its head in shame not providing that for its children- the future of the nation!
You see Britain's ruling class does not care about the children of those it considers surplus. In fact the Conservatives are actively Malthusian in introducing policies and using rhetoric that knocked about in the 19th Century in order to "decrease the surplus population" - you only have to read the comments on any right wing paper or youtube video.
I hope the NS paid the young social worker for his appearance. These NS podcasts have opened my eyes to the sheer injustices of Brutish life. Did I say Brutish? It needs the EU to run the place as clearly the Brexiteers can’t.
Fantastic conversation and important issues raised
They talked of the negative impact of inequality on everyone in society and it's good to know there is solid data behind this - it's not "just" a belief borne of compassionate concern for others, for example. The book "The Spirit Level" (published by Penguin) by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett uses data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others to show the impact of inequality on (as the cover notes say) life expectancy, mental illness, violence, illiteracy etc. around the world. Well worth a read - it had a profound impact on me.
me too
Blah blah , some are rich , some poor , suck it up.
@@benitolazio8193 no
Great conversation, we need more of these.
I wonder how all this corresponds with the fact that UK is the 5th global economy and has most number of people with obesity in EU?
A powerful discussion with some very intelligent ideas that examine the crises of poverty and inequality - and a message for all that real social evolution is initiated by grass roots individuals and groups all over the world, not by politicians and governments.
"if you had access to the government... What would you like to most persuade them about" is precisely the problem: unless it's about staying in power, Tories don't care. It's not about class, or devious plots, or "neoliberalism", it's a basic understanding of the politicians you have and their incentives. Your political system is unfit for purpose, the quicker you lot realize that, the quicker you can start solving the actual problems.
Crazy amount of inequality between rail workers and nurses who have a good union and get paid massively higher than their skills warrant and poor private sector workers.
Rail workers and nurses are not highly paid. Don’t listen to the govt lies. Train drivers were included in their calculations - but that’s a different union .
What the strikes show is how important their jobs are for the whole country. That’s the reason discussions are deflected into the 'greed' of the workers and the irresponsibility of nurses demanding reasonable pay that the NHS can’t afford.
Meanwhile the government is spending astronomical fees money on building new prisons, including women’s prisons, that do not house those avoiding tax and engaging in fraud but which imprison overwhelmingly the poor.
@@philomel1000 They get paid more than most. Much more in fact. This is where our tax money goes. If nurse were paid less we could hire more and they wouldn't be complaining about being overworked.
I am working in a supermarket so most of the time I see how people spend their money 10£ on vodka and 11£ on tobacco and 5£ on the lottery 8£ on food so where is the problem is on MONEY management .....
Yes you're making assumptions, most people I speak to are fully invested in the idea of trickle-down economics, that if we adopt more taxes on the wealthiest and corporations they will leave our country and that people on benefits are scroungers. The underserving poor and self-help ideologies are far too entrenched even among the poor and the working class. Victorian values still going strong.
26:04 exactly, each slice is relative to the rest of the pie
You can talk this round and round and round forever, but the elephant in the room is that we have too many people here. The infrastructure cannot support the growing population, and until you can maybe put a cap on that (I don't know how..) the situation will just get worse and worse. I'm sure I'm not a rocket scientist.., but it all seems staggeringly obvious to me. If you have a water leak in your house, you need to turn the water off and fix the leak. If you try to fix it with the water turned on, you will eventually drown. What's the difference?.
A great interview. I would like to see electoral change within our parliamentary system in the UK, I feel we need more parties holding the government to account over these issues, currently the Labour don’t seem to be representing the working class anymore, perhaps if we had a more representative House of Commons then Labour would be forced to return to its roots. Having recently worked in the emergency services I’ve seen how unpleasant it is for those within our society who live in poverty, often portrayed by mainstream media as lazy benefits thieves. I would like to see political campaigns funded by central government giving all parties an equal share and in turn cutting out corporate interests from the election process. It’s clear the British people have largely lost faith in the mainstream media however constant headlines by the media seem to fuel a biased environment in politics. Second jobs for MP’s should be severely restricted and financial donations stopped, in a world where we keep hearing multi millionaire politicians saying they’re just doing their duty whilst vastly increasing their wealth and influence simultaneously makes one wonder if it’s really duty or personal gain that’s their driving force.
This government (and previous ones in the last decade) have been doing what seems to be their utmost to increase the inequality gap, not reduce it. I can't see that changing until the party in charge, who rely on donations from the wealthy, is gone.
No surprise when you have a corporate state that can creates currency and credit out of thin air and then hand it directly to the OLIGARCHY for FIFTY YEARS. 🙄🙄🙄
People skipping meals to pay for energy !!!! we should be skipping paying bills into a private network that used to belong to us!
The bank of England recently announced that GDP is at 0.3% yet they raise interest rates anyway it's counterintuitive.
When productivity is low raising interest rates will just compound the problem.
Adam Posen the man that used to write policy for the bank of England warned about austerity in the face of a recession.
It equates to the same thing as reducing the amount of money AKA liquidity into the local economy, it's self prophesizing.
We've had austerity policies since 2010 under our tory government, and they are still ongoing, nothing has really changed and nothing will change while the tories remain in power. Things will only get much worse for the vast majority of people in the UK, while the con party remains in power
@@fredatlas4396 you're absolutely right it's the same in America tax cuts and austerity always blaming the poor for being poor and blaming migrants for their plight.
@@justsayen2024 immigration is capitalism importing an over supply of labour in, which is a race to the bottom particularly for the working class.
Oligarchs love immigration.
Capitalism will never invest in training or increase pay and conditions if it can just fly in labour.
Back in the day the Left understood this, even Bernie Sanders was anti immigration.
Theres no such thing in economics as trickle down. How we survive for most people is in employment and improving ones lot. The reason for offering a better tax incentive to people earning higher salaries is because it makes Britain more attractive for employers and CEO's to move here. Levelling down doesn't help anyone .
It is time to take back utility services, such as water and power. We can still allow private companies to operate within the state owned utilities, but would be a fixed period and with the ability to take it back when they fail to deliver. It would allow for charging to be adjusted for those who can afford to pay to do so, and provide help for those who do not.
it's great to see Armando Iannucci return to performative leftism after spending about 4 years smearing the one person that was seriously committed to, and in a position to do something about, reducing inequality as an anti-semite and a brexit voter
Spot on!
You should get Steve Keen on to actually emphasize how outdated our politician's (and oligarch's) understanding of economics is, and what we can do to change this understanding to turn economics into a pseudo-science into an actual science, giving it the ability to evolve around inequality, rather than fully ignoring it as long as "GDP go up!!!".
Really good conversation
Well it is, Armando, but you were ‘Never Corbyn’ when there was a chance to make a difference. Now it’s impossible you’re full of fine words. What a decent chap you are.
Your accurate comment applies to all too many pundits: there is no place for genuine socialists, it seems.
It's astonishing to see the anti Corbyn people now complain about issues they actively demonised in 2017 and 2019. They need to take equal blame to the tories they supported into power.
A lot of people like him speak of alternatives and they had one in front of them. But in the end they expect us to settle for tory lite labour and be grateful for it.
Why was he a "never Corbyn"ite? Is he an apartheid state supporting Zionist?
That is very true. This is what always infuriates me about England, until the country can recognise how ludicrous the response to Corbyn was we will never be able to tackle our problems. Hand wringing liberals are very much part of the equation that brought us here, if they didn't like Corbyn's proposals what do they want? They admit the problems are extreme so mild tapering around the edges cannot solve them, it's just a self evident fact
Perhaps one way to ask the question about government is to say trickle down food and heating, if everyone as a bite of your meal there will be nothing to eat when it gets to you.
36:05 Lord Bird (founder of The Big Issue) is, I think, the only member of either House who has had direct personal experience of the circumstances discussed here.
The New Statesman: Lets ask a comedian about the economy
And yet, huge numbers of working class people, members of my own extended family included, still go on about benefit scroungers and immigrants coming here to live on benefits. As though a life in abject poverty is in some way chosen. Usually those that do, have never lived a day of their lives on benefits. I never have either, but have worked with those that do and witnessed the crushing effects. An awful, degrading existence for so many. Politicians and the right wing press cultivate and perpetuate such myths, to keep the 95% who own only 5% of the countries wealth, fighting against each other, rather than holding those actually responsible to account. Divide and Rule.
The problem is simple. Those with much always want more.
Well, they must be told they can't have it!
Those given the access to much don’t see that more deprives others of their chance, or by the time they gain much they don’t give a damn about anyone else. Individualism and free market ideology.
This is a great video Dominic has open my eyes to what is going on out with this awfull goverment he is a brave guy and I wish him well for the future thanks for putting this out
If trickle down economy worked, Victorian workers would have been well-off. As it was, all the rights and improvements the workers finally got were fought for. There were a few Quaker bosses who did right by their employers, but on the whole it was at the discretion of the bosses, and it did not work until imposed on them by very reluctant governments.
All serious economists have now discredited trickle down economics.
the poor and less fortunate are always to blame for the failures of the government. They MUST be punished.
Yeah, can't wait for the grand re-opening of the workhouses, the children picking fruit and veg in the fields,sadly there are few chimneys remaing for them to sweep.
To me the problem is the whole damn system. Failure seems ingrained to it. Doesn't matter how we improve it.
We need a complete reset of society. Stop endless consumption!