Progressive politics could build an economy for the people, by the people

Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, believes that politics is finally waking up to the reality that our economic model is broken.

Across the political spectrum, she sees a growing consensus that the economy does not work for the majority of people as the New Economics Foundation has argued for years.

It took the 2008 financial crisis to expose the weaknesses of our current economic model and ten years of pain for the mainstream to catch up.

She lists some of the evidence:

• ‘Economic growth’ has – for the first time in modern records – ceased to deliver a pay rise for many.
• A decade of wage stagnation has left millions of people struggling to meet the growing cost of every day essentials.
• Many are having to borrow to get by, with three million households now in severe debt.
• Traditional sources of support through public services have been cut to the bone in the name of austerity.
• One in three children now live in poverty.
• wealth continues to be concentrated at the top: the richest 10% now owning 45% of the country’s wealth,
• The poorest half of households own just 9%.

Miatta fears that, Brexit will make it harder, not easier, to take on the bigger, more important challenge of transforming the economy and the build-up of rancour will grow and the clamour for change will get louder. She continues:

“We need a new economic model – one that works for people and our planet. The new economy must be rooted in a thriving and healthy environment, in which a green transition is seen as the priority because climate change and the damage to our environment is now the biggest threat to economic justice we face.

“It must deliver better and more equal living standards in which the basics for a decent quality of life – minimum income, housing, health & social care, childcare and education – are guaranteed for all and provided communally. It must be built by businesses that work for the long term and in the public interest with stronger voice and power for workers baked into their business model.

“But perhaps above all, it must be an economy that genuinely empowers people. By giving people greater ownership and stake in the economy through common ownership of public goods and essential infrastructure and co-operative and mutual ownership of enterprise.

“It must be supported and stewarded by an active but decentralised state rooted in communities and shaped by strong democratic participation. Finally, it must push power and decision-making down to communities where people know best, enabling them to act collectively to improve their lives”.

She thinks that Labour shows signs of promise with its commitment to radical economic reform and its recent policy announcements on employee ownership, ownership of essential utilities and zero carbon emissions by 2050. But it has some way to go to reimagine an economy that is not dependent on a central state ‘doing change’ to people from the top.

The Conservatives have embraced the principle – if not the practice – of decentralisation and empowering communities, but – she observes – they have not yet set out a compelling economic response that offers an alternative.

Up and down the country, people are already taking the lead in putting the new economy into practice – credit unions, community banks, community transport and co-operatives. Here and in other countries people are setting up a wide range of locally oriented businesses.

Miatta foresees that this movement of people could form the backbone for a progressive politics uniting to build an economy for the people, by the people.

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Read her article here.

 

 

 

 

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