“I want to speak to you now, somebody who is not incredibly rich, but has a bit of money, and is opposed to wealth taxation of the very rich. And I want to explain to you what is going to happen from here. Okay, we have increasingly, in this country, in America, in the world, an untaxed super-rich class. These people have enormous amounts of passive income. The poorest billionaire in the world with a wealth of just one billion dollars will generate more than a million dollars a week in passive income, and that is currently almost untaxed. These people have no choice but to buy up all of the assets very quickly, and that is squeezing asset ownership out of every other group in society. As that continues to happen, more and more people in our societies will own no assets and will be in debt. This will mean we will have no strong consumer, and we will have a weak economy. That will lead to an increasingly angry public that push their governments into taking action to support the growing poverty. Governments will be politically forced to step in to try to deal with the growing poverty. But because they do not have the capacity to tax the richest people in society, they are going to tax you.”
First, our understanding of political risk has to change. We are no longer dealing with actors who are constrained by norms, expectations, or even basic human decency.
Second, the institutional safeguards that we assumed would provide protection look increasingly fragile. If those in power are willing to ignore them, their effectiveness is limited. They have, quite literally, thrown the international rules-based order aside. So far, there is nothing to replace it.
Third, the psychological impact is real. Living with the possibility of extreme events, including those we once thought impossible, alters how people think, act, and relate to one another.
And fourth, inequality and exploitation are likely to deepen. When crises are used as opportunities for enrichment, the costs are borne by the many, while the gains accrue to the few.”
Relieved that genocide had not happened in Iran, @richardjmurphy@mas.to regards opposition to the promotion of fear and hate as the only means by which we can hold on to our sanity and prevent political failure.
“Here’s me in the UK, which is probably the least prepared country in the world for an energy price crisis, right? Massively dependent on imported energy, hasn’t built up its own energy storage, doesn’t have an enormous amount of reserves of energy like other countries like Japan or Korea have, which it probably should have done, and yet when there is an energy price crisis, what happens to me? I make hundreds of thousands of pounds because I own the energy. If you are watching from America and you are paying more for energy, despite the fact that there is a fuck-ton of oil in your country, that’s because you don’t own your oil, I do. And the point I’m trying to make here is when I come out here every fucking week and tell you guys ‘You need to care about wealth distribution’, it’s not because I am some fucking communist tree-hugging hippie. It is because if you do not own your resources, then when the price of the resources go up, you are fucked.”
“A society cannot meaningfully debate policy, science or justice if information is locked away behind paywalls or controlled by proprietary algorithms. If we allow AI companies to profit from mass appropriation while claiming immunity, we are choosing a future in which access to knowledge is governed by corporate power rather than democratic values.” Bruce Schneier warns of a future in which access to knowledge is subordinate to corporate interests.
“The very worst-case speculative scenario for Huawei-as-Chinese-Trojan-horse is infinitely better than the non-speculative, real ways in which the US has killswitched and bugged the world’s devices.” Cory Doctorow explains why responsible governments should have to accelerate their countries’ independence from US tech and not just Russian gas.
“This third attempt to pass largely the same unlawful decision also raises questions as to the larger role of the European Commission being the guardian of the EU treaties. Instead of upholding the ‘rule of law’ the Commission simply passes an invalid decision over and over again, despite clear rulings by the CJEU.” By agreeing the Data Privacy Framework with the US, the European Commission likely prioritised diplomatic and business interests over the rights of Europeans.
“Okay, so now you’ve got this alternating thing, which will remind you of some of the politics of the world today, where we have to do something to you because of what you did to us.”
“… and when quizzed about the upcoming nurses strikes, the Conservative party chairman said that demands for a 19% pay rise for nurses would cost the NHS 10 billion pounds, which should instead be spent on NHS frontline services. Back to you, Chris.
Gaslighting fuckers! If nurses aren’t the NHS frontline?? I mean, what about ambulance drivers and and paramedics? Are they not frontline services? Give them a decent pay rise, you fuckers! They deserve it, find the money! You all spring into action every time you crash the economy, you can find the money then. Get ’round the table, make a decent offer. Instead, they’re sending in the army telling us the unions are holding the country to ransom. The unions!? Can we all just be clear about this? Our last prime minister blew a 30 billion pound hole in the economy overnight, test and trace cost us 37 billion pounds. Useless PPE wasted 8.7 billion pounds, which ended up in the pockets of Tory donors. A shambolically executed Brexit lost us 40 billion in tax revenue alone. Richi Sunak lost 11 billion pounds by overpaying interest on UK debt, and yet, you read the front pages, it’s nurses who were the ones who are greedy and irresponsible. It’s the fire service that’s holding the country to ransom, ’cause they all just decided they’d prefer to drink tea on a freezing picket line than save children from burning buildings. It wasn’t so long ago we were clapping them; hailing them as heroes. They were all considered key workers during the pandemic, weren’t they? Bus drivers, teachers, nurses. Now, they’re called lazy workshy fuckers. Postal workers, striking to save what’s left of the Royal Mail — it having been sold off to the lowest bidder for a quick buck by the millionaires in Westminster — but it’s your postman who is destroying the country!? The entire northern rail network is on the brink of collapse whilst rail companies and their shareholders make record profits, …but it’s that fat, lazy fucker behind the ticket desk, asking for a bit of job security, who is destroying our rail infrastructure!? 25 to 50% of average households are unable to pay their bills this winter, whilst energy companies announced record breaking profits. In 2021, Shell paid zero pounds on their oil production in the UK and received 100 million pounds of subsidies in tax payer’s money. Working people are suffering at the hands of corporate greed and unbridled economic mismanagement, and this is why people are striking for better pay, conditions and job security. Recently, the government gave us the Public Order bill that, that [sic] even one Tory peer described as an afront to a civilised society. Crackdowns on peaceful protest is the purview of China and Iran, not British democracy. And yet these reactionary fuckwits tell us it’s Scottish primary school teachers who are holding us hostage. The bastards who wrecked the economy, squandered our reputation on the international stage, sold off any and all of the country’s assets for a quick buck are getting their mates in the media to tell you that it’s bus drivers, bin men, teachers, nurses, postmen, passport control workers and rail workers who are throwing the country to the dogs. Don’t believe them; they are lying to you!
Well, stome [sic], still some weeks ahead of Christmas industrial action, misery for commuters, patients and holiday makers. Frustration and anger at the unions for deciding to strike over Christmas …”
