Thread for lefties - what economic policies would you like to see?

[Takver]

From quite a lot of recent threads, I get the feeling that I'm not the only leftie who was/remains distinctly unimpressed by the late Labour govt's economic policies . . . but finds the ConDem policies even worse. So, if you were writing a new left wing manifesto, what economic policies would you like to see?

(Who knows, maybe someone in the Lab. party in need of inspiration might even read this thread and lead us all to Nirvana )

OK, so maybe I'll start - anyone else going to add?

A fundamental problem for me is increased wage inequality - its all very well trying to deal with poverty & income inequality through redistribution and the benefits system, but it's expensive, difficult to achieve without messing up work incentives etc, and also very vulnerable (as we are seeing now) to anything from cuts through to full scale dismantling when right wing parties are in power. Whereas, if you can reduce wage inequality, you reduce the need for redistribution, and hopefully have a more long lasting impact on society.

At the same time I would like a massive move towards economic democracy, to sit alongside our parliamentary democracy. I hate the word 'empowerment', but it kind of expresses what I mean, unfortunately - ordinary people having some real control over their working lives. I guess that's going back to the roots of the Labour movement, and thinking about who controls the means of production. I definitely wouldn't want to see re-nationalisation in the form of monolithic State enterprises - IMO that didn't lead to any real workplace democracy any more than State socialism led to democracy in the eastern bloc.

I guess if I were setting policy, I would be trying to massively encourage worker owned businesses in whatever form with financial incentives. So, for example, lower rates of employer NI for businesses that are more than 50% worker controlled (not necessarily directly worker managed), NI or corporation tax holidays for new worker controlled businesses, and practical / legal support for businesses looking to become worker controlled.

My other main policy strand would be to try as far as possible to reduce taxation on 'good' things like employment, and increase taxation on environmentally destructive activities. So, maybe I would pay for my reduced NI rates (or perhaps for my improved public transport, moving away from the economy) by increasing fuel tax, for example.

Takver - I'm not strictly a lefty, but I do think you make some good points.

Enabling workers to earn a living wage seems preferable to leaving them dependent on benefits. I think the living wage level should vary by region, and be voluntary (but with state incentives).

I would be interested to see what proper lefties make of your ideas.

Hi jackstarb, glad I'm not totally alone out here

I think its absolutely true that it makes sense for a living wage level to vary by region. Earning minimum wage isn't great here, for sure, but its a hell of a lot better than if you were in London or the south east. I guess I would see state compulsion as definitely a second best (though maybe - probably? - necessary at the moment).

My vision would be that democratically controlled businesses would be far less likely to have massive wage inequality. Sure, sometimes, workers might feel that they did want to employ a 'super-manager' and pay big bucks to him/her if they could see a direct return for them in terms of performance.

What I hope would stop is the culture whereby huge payments to those at the top become the norm. At the moment it feels like directors pay is decided by a cosy circle - the main shareholders in big companies are so often pension funds and the like - and the same faces & old boys who all know each other appear so often as directors & non-execs - so average performers get superstar pay.

I guess the proper lefties aren't talking to me

I'd definitely vote for your policies!

Takver I like your ideas.

It is not just economic policy, but I would definitely reverse the ConDem attack on working parents. I do not want benefits, I want to work for a fair wage.

Will watch this thread with interest, but have little to contribute as I feel such an economics numpty. I'm interested in what you say Takver about 'economic democracy'. The kind of worker-led companies that you envisage (or something like them) are in the news a lot recently as an alternative model for the delivery of public services (ambulance services as worker-mutuals, etc). That is rather frightening and horrific, given that worker agency in these services is already present via political democracy, with its (theoretical) capacity to give both public-sector workers and their clients some control of and emotional/cultural identification with the work they do. But ... could the models employed here be seized on as a vanguard for similar worker-led enterprise in the private sector? Not perhaps legally, since unique legal structures might be required in each of these two different sorts of cases. But culturally -- if the worker-mututuals are forced on us in the public sector we could think of that as a cultural lever to economic democracy?

I am terrified of worker-mutual sin the public sector, which will start out with a third-sector branding and evolve quickly into the private sector's Fifth Column.

gingercat, I think what you say chimes really well with how I feel - I think really at bottom most people just want to do a fair days work for a fair wage, and perhaps also have some say in how things are run.

Eleison, I agree, trying to turn the organisations that we already own into mutuals is absolutely back to front.

I'll also eat my hat if workers in the NHS, Royal Mail etc get any real say under these plans (maybe I'm just a cynic?). From what I've seen it looks like only a fraction of the business would belong to the workers, most would be owned by someone else, and who that would be (the state? probably not . . .) is unclear.