Trickle-Up Economics: The Policy of Greed

The big idea is that if you release big business, allow for mammoth wage rises for top executives and abandon tax disincentives, the nation thrives. The success then ‘trickles down’ to benefit everyone.

Within the policy is an assumption that those at the top will want to benefit those at the bottom, that they are keen to benefit the nation, not just their bank accounts.

History shows that those in power rarely look beyond themselves. For every philanthropic executive, there are twenty more intent on securing their own seven figure salary and the payments to their shareholders. Where’s the trickle down to the poor? It’s not there.

Well done to Yvon Chouinard, the Founder of Patagonia clothing. He’s putting the whole company into a trust and ensuring the plan to make clothing from recycled plastic continues to have a future and that profits go towards managing climate change. Not so well done to the COE of Manchester Airports group who awarded himself a pay rise of 25% (£500,000) this year taking his total remuneration to £2.5m.

The latter is far more common than the former. To assume the rich are not greedy is to ignore the truth as reflected in the Bible: ‘Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.’ (Ecclesiastes 5: 10)

The change of tack last week by our extreme right wing thinking Government will mean the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Farewell

 

Remembering

The Power of Song

Songs can be powerful. And none more so than when on national television at unexpected moments. Stormzy taking Glastonbury ‘to church’ with his song ‘Blinded by Your Grace’. Even Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. Her rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Misérables was all the more powerful because it was so unexpected.

I remember as a kid watching the Beatles sing ‘Hey Jude’ on Top of the Pops. It was like nothing I’d heard before. And the audacity to keep on singing at the end well beyond the usual three-minute pop song time limit.

I was taken aback again this week, watching (belatedly) The Voice on ITV. Part way through, the audience cajole Tom Jones, one of the judges, into singing. At 82 years old, he’s not lost his ability to sing. But it was his choice of song that got me.

He lost his wife to cancer a few years ago. It was a turbulent marriage on occasions, but one that lasted. A friendship that started as 12-year-olds, they were married for nearly 60 years. As he began to sing, the emotion in his voice was unusual. About someone being there for another, but not crumbling if they fall. He explained at the end that it was about being there for his wife, Linda, and promising her he would carry on after she had gone. These were his words:

“My wife, you know, she was dying of lung cancer, so I said, you know, I was always able to fix stuff, to do things if she needed me, I was always there. She said, 'Don't crumble with me, don't fall now, you've done everything you can, you must carry on and do what you do.’”

It’s hard to be there for someone close to you but see that for once you can’t ‘fix stuff’. His response in song was poignant.

At the end, another of the judges, Anne-Marie, said it was one of the best moments in her life. And it wasn’t TV hyperbole for a change.