George Monbiot’s Plan to Kill Economic Growth
WE get George Monbiot’s plan in his column in The Guardian today. And a very good plan it is too.
So Jackson has begun developing a macroeconomic model which would allow economic output to be stabilised. He experiments with raising the ratio of investment to consumption, changing the nature and conditions of investment and shifting the balance from private to public spending, while staying within tight constraints on the use of resources. He finds that the redistribution of both income and employment (through shorter working hours) is essential to the project. So is re-regulation of the banks, enhanced taxation of resources and pollution and measures to discourage manic consumption, such as tighter restrictions on advertising.His system is not wholly different to today’s: people will still spend and save, companies will still produce goods and services, governments will still raise taxes and spend money. It requires more government intervention than we’re used to;
No, I don’t mean excellent in the sense of desirable, I mean excellent in the sense that it will do just as George wants, kill economic growth stone dead.
The Jackson mentioned is Tim Jackson who was a part of the Sustainable Development Commission when Sir Johnny Porritt was running it. Yes, that’s right, we really were all paying the salaries of people who were plotting about how to make sure that the economy never grew again. That our children would be no better off than we are, that everyone would be chained to their work with no possibility of the world ever getting better.
But still, there we have it. The way to call a halt to the march of time, the way to make absolutely certain that the economy doesn’t recover, is to have lots more government.
So, err, that’s the Labour Party’s plans for economic recovery dealt with then, eh?
Posted: 23rd, August 2011 | In: Money Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
