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by kungfufighter » Wed Nov 13, 2019 11:36 pm
So, the wealthy billionaires of Britain, mainly London, have worked hard for their money, you say? That we all started out on a level playing field and they got where they are today because they had something special we didn't? (you'd be right there). That business is tough, but they're basically honest and good for the country? And the Conservatives, rightly, pander to their needs?
I beg to differ...
To put how much a billion is into perspective, a million seconds is 12 days; a billion seconds is 31 years. If I saved a million pounds every year since the battle of Hastings (1066) to today, I would still not be a billionaire! This is a level of wealth that nobody should aspire to, and that billionaires exist in our society at all is the result of decades of policy failure at both the national and international levels.
The UK often tops the list of billionaires per head, and the country now has more than 150 billionaires, with many living in London – the city with more billionaires than any other in the world. This shows our economy is run in the interests of the few, not the many, and that our tax system is utterly broken. Recent Tory policies such as the cut in corporation tax have further tilted the balance away from workers and towards the super wealthy.
But surely, you might say, people who make that much money deserve it to some extent? The reality shows that this is not the case – according to an Oxfam report, one third of global billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, whilst another third comes from “crony connections to government and monopoly”. The other third comes from a capitalist system that necessarily exploits working people for their labour. While some billionaires may have worked hard at some point, have they really worked billions of times harder than nurses or cleaners doing 40+ hour weeks?
These billionaires are not cash generators as many on the right argue – they are cash hoarders. And what is the point of being a billionaire if they can’t spend all that money? Simple: access to power...
Brexit now only stands to benefit billionaires, with the likes of hedge fund manager Crispin Odey shorting the pound and pumping thousands into pro-Brexit groups and Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. The prospect of a deregulated economy – a “Singapore-on-Thames” – is the great post-Brexit prize, and exactly what the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg are aiming for. Meanwhile, we have a Prime Minister who, during that very leadership campaign, spoke with pride of how from the 2008 crash onwards he “stuck up for the bankers” and “defended them” more than any other Conservative politician.
Last edited by
kungfufighter on Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:56 am, edited 2 times in total.
Up the workers!