The officials at the Labour Party Conference, pursuing again as usual the hard-right bias instilled by the culture still remaining from the tenure of a previous General Secretary, Margaret McDonagh, stitched up the economic debate today. It was largely anodyne, consensual, safely attacking the Tories but saying little at all about why we lost or what our economic policy now is or should be. So here is my contribution to that debate, however much they may disapprove.
We all agree that the deficit is far too large and has to be reduced. But focusing exclusively on spending cuts is the wrong way of going about it. It hits the poorest ten times harder than the rich. It pushes up unemployment which costs more in benefits and therefore actually increases the deficit. It condemns a whole new generation of young people to joblessness as happened in the 1980s. It risks a worse double-dip recession which at present is a very real risk. And above all, it plays to the Tories’ game of shrinking the State.
What is needed is a total shift in thinking about the deficit. What we are witnessing is in fact a power struggle. Money as such does not exist. It is an abstract idea. It is a representation of power. There is a gross imbalance of wealth i.e power in this country & the so called deficit is just the rich attempting to regain some of the power which, rightly or wrongly, they fear they have lost or are losing.
In a democracy power should, as far as rational, be evenly spread but in our country it is concentrated into very few hands. My once in every four year’s vote is of no consequence compared to the power of the rich owners of the political parties & the media who influence every facet of society to maintain their grip on power.
The so called deficit is merely an accounting device which is so arranged to benefit the rich & maintain their power base. Otherwise those with the wealth would be paying back what they have taken & ordinary folk would not be fearing for the loss of their homes & livelihoods.