{"id":4662,"date":"2015-07-06T14:23:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T13:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4662"},"modified":"2015-07-06T14:31:14","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T13:31:14","slug":"building-an-economy-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4662","title":{"rendered":"Building an economy for all"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Tory guru Steve Hilton has had a revelation: low pay causes poverty.\u00c2\u00a0 From one Steve to another, welcome to the real world.\u00c2\u00a0 But as your party is about to unveil its first full blue-blooded Tory Budget in 19 years you need to think a bit more about what \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and who – drives poverty in this country. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course really Cameron and Osborne have been in government for\u00c2\u00a0five years already. Their austerity economics has brewed together chronic cuts, privatisation and scapegoating of benefit claimants and migrants. Insecure, precarious work has grown unabated under their watch. So when last week Cameron announced he now wants to see a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhigher wage, lower tax, lower welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 society, alarm bells ring over exactly how he will reach this utopia.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The scale of cuts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the deepest yet to our public services and benefits \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will hit all but the very wealthiest. Women, the disabled, the low-waged, those not in work, those who need help with ever-spiralling housing costs and children will not be spared. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not for Mssrs Osborne and Cameron any reflection on why their policies have caused the slowest economic recovery with the deepest decline in living standards crisis on record \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not to mention that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve missed every target they set themselves on both the debt and the deficit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nor were we were not told where the \u00c2\u014112bn axe would fall during the election, perhaps because the Conservatives would have had to spell out exactly what is in store for our neighbours, colleagues and communities. And served up with the cuts is a good dose of fear with the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Speech announcement that the screw would tighten further on our civil liberties and trade unions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to be this way.\u00c2\u00a0 To vilify trade unions is to belittle the largest democratic organisations in society, their six million people as members and our evident role in delivering a fairer deal for people. In the private sector, trade union organised workplaces have pay eight per cent higher than non-union workplaces.\u00c2\u00a0 So Mr Cameron, if you are genuinely interested in the fight against inequality, back us when we take it to the workplace. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As the more laws shackle unions, employment rights are weakened, and the structures supporting good industrial relations and collective bargaining are dismantled so too have the wages of middle and low earners stagnated.\u00c2\u00a0 Inequality has grown, and we have seen the share of GDP going to workers as wages shrink since right-wing economics took hold in the late 1970s. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Even the IMF \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hardly the bastion of dangerous reds \u00e2\u20ac\u201c warns that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf the income share of the top 20 per cent\u00c2\u00a0increases, then GDP growth actually declines over the medium term, suggesting that the benefits do not trickle down. In contrast, an increase in the income share of the bottom 20 per cent\u00c2\u00a0is associated with higher GDP growth.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, such is the extent of low pay in this country that \u00c2\u014111bn is spent through the benefit system and tax credits to help struggling workers make ends meet.\u00c2\u00a0 For too many, work does not pay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c witness the foodbank where more queuing are in work than not. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cruel <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lower welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for this government does not mean mounting an assault on the cause of the struggle but rather on those struggling.\u00c2\u00a0 So instead of addressing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098corporate welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dependency, it chooses the route that is cowardly. It is also cruel.\u00c2\u00a0 The proposed cuts to Child Tax Credits will leave a low paid two child family \u00c2\u01411,690 a year poorer.\u00c2\u00a0 It will plunge 300,000 more children into poverty. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Further, the government is currently piloting \u00e2\u20ac\u0098in-work sanctions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c where benefits are stopped if people in work do not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more usually, cannot – increase their hours or pay. But no obligations are being placed on employers to increase hours or pay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it is just another way of putting the blame on individual working people. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A member of my union told me that where he works, in a famous-name pizza delivery firm, some colleagues have been on zero hours contracts for seven years.\u00c2\u00a0 Week to week they have no idea what they will earn, if they will earn.\u00c2\u00a0 Having a family is a pipe-dream \u00e2\u20ac\u201c having a holiday would be a start. Cutting housing and tax credit support will snare people like him in deep poverty.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Warm words `encouraging\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 employers to pay more is a grotesque insult when the government will bring ruin to millions of people whose only crime is to be poorly paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember people affected are not some strange `other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they are the woman next to you on the bus, the young man who just served you in the shop, the man who is looking after your ageing parent or who is helping your child learn to read.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And in this context of course, a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lower tax\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 economy can work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if you are wealthy or a tax-averse corporation like Amazon making \u00c2\u01415.3bn from sales in Britain but coughing up only \u00c2\u014112m in tax. We want tax justice that goes hand in hand with social justice. The economist Howard Reed has shown that an increase in the National Minimum Wage to \u00c2\u01418 an hour immediately would create a net increase of 30,000 jobs and improve the public finances. (Yes, it would reduce the welfare bill, too.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We could go better – \u00c2\u014110 an hour. Investment, not cuts and destruction.\u00c2\u00a0 Enabling, not attacking, trade unions to support people play their part and get their fair share.\u00c2\u00a0 Higher wages and decent work for all. Then we really do start to build an economy for all. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tory guru Steve Hilton has had a revelation: low pay causes poverty.\u00c2\u00a0 From one Steve to another, welcome to the real world.\u00c2\u00a0 But as your party is about to unveil its first full blue-blooded Tory Budget in 19 years you need to think a bit more about what \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and who – drives poverty in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[76,44],"wps_subtitle":"If you want higher wages you need stronger unions ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4663,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions\/4663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}