8 June 2017 Election Surprises?

Party manifestos, according to Free Lunch principles, should tackle the monopolistic tendencies arising in society.  The moral basis for this is from common threads found in biblical, enlightenment and liberal values and concern human rights, equality and freedom. As the political parties ply for our votes in June how do they measure up to the implied 'fairness with freedom' ? 

The core aim of The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom is the common good. The book suggests ways to move towards a society where each citizen is a beneficiary of the resources of nature and those arising from community-inspired schemes. The book is anti-monopoly and what is termed rent-seeking: meaning the hunt for gain sought by monopolists. Extreme disparities of wealth and poverty are the outcome in a society where control of monopolies is lax. Enlightened politics will reduce rent-seeking outcomes. 

• How are the current political parties matching up with the aims of reformers who desire the sharing of monopoly resources via a universal income for all?  
• What do they prescribe to redress the unfairness of the land monopoly: For example what about the land value gains of home owners compared with none for renters?
• What about the resource of further education now being charged for through student fees when it used to be provided free as a common provision from the public purse?
• What about the huge credit-creating monopoly of banking which neglects small business loans as too small and unprofitable to bother with? 
• What about the ability of government to create its own money to fund public expenses for public services, safely and without inflation?
• What about extending the voting franchise to younger people?

It is natural to want monopoly rights. It makes for an easy life. Owners of homes share in the land monopoly through the valuable nest-egg that builds up over the decades associated with the underlying land value of their home.  Fred Harrison points out that:

'... owners of high-value homes are able to recoup what they pay in taxes through rising property prices. ...enjoy tax-free use of schools and hospitals... Low income earners and families that rent their homes...carry the cost of the infrastructure investments and public services that enhance the value of the homes of the rich.' 

How fair is that? What do our political gurus recommend about this particular inequality which creates a constant welfare burden?  

Universal Basic Income (Citizen's Income / Citizen's Royalty)

• The only party wanting to introduce this is the Green Party.  They would create a pilot to test the idea. 

The land monopoly: home owning or renting

• Labour and the Liberal Democrats both mention land value tax as a tax reform measure. This would retrieve the gains accruing to the land values in property prices for the public purse and allow lower taxes on income and goods or as a substitute for council tax.  
• The Greens and Labour would introduce rent controls. This would be a protection for renters as a useful half-way measure until a full land value taxation scheme was implemented payable by landlords.
• The Tory manifesto policy for care in later life was to be paid from a home sale without limit above a £100k house value. The enforced U-turn, in days, shows the political danger of taking land value gains. Whilst not having the universality of land value tax for all land, the idea that property gains should fund the care is a reasonable quid pro quo, but to have to individually account for each care package and each property is probably a bureaucratic path best not travelled, besides introducing a variable charge/cost (aka 'taxation') for every case.      
• Bedroom tax aboliton (now a liablity of council house renters)  is proposed by the Greens, Labour, the Lib-Dems and UKIP.

Student tuition fees  

• The Greens, Labour and UKIP plan to abolish student tuition fees and would introduce maintenance grants (UKIP for poor students). 
• The Lib-Dems, the original champions of the abolition of tuition fees who reneged to their great downfall after being in coalition, propose bursaries for nurses and grants for poor students.
• The Tory proposal is: forgive loan repayments for teachers; provide access to grants for technology students & 'financial support that offers value for money'. This one looks 'interesting' with the news that student debt interest rates will rise from 4.6% to 6.1% this year. Andrew Greenwood (FT letter 19 April) wonders why the Swedish model is not followed with the cost of student loans as per the cost of government borrowing at 0.34%?     

Voting age to 16 

• The Green Party, Labour, the Lib-Dems and UKIP all want this. 

Local Banks 

• Labour will get the Post Office to establish a Post Bank with full banking services in every community. They also propose regional development banks. 
• The Lib-Dems will 'Require the major banks to fund the creation of a local banking sector dedicated to meeting the needs of local SMEs'. 
• The Tories propose British Business Bank branches in several major cities for SME lending needs.

Monetary reform  No parties make any suggestion about using government money creation powers to fund some public expenses. Instead the arguments are about balancing the books for borrowing, taxing and spending. Labour suggests borrowing for extra infrastructure investment because interest rates are so low - it is bound to pay off. But no one makes the case for creating the money as an extension of the QE creation process to pay for such expense without debt or interest to repay to banks. 

Lord Turner is an exponent of this e.g. deficit financing (Book: Between Debt and The Devil) as is Prof Richard Werner e.g. broadband investment.  There is no reason why just as quantitative easing is used to create money to buy back government debt or to buy commercial bonds, that it could not be used to nationalise the water companies (a Labour Party idea but bought through bonds) or to fund general government spending. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England would need to take note of any money supply implications and outcomes and act as necessary to prevent adverse economic effects - as they do now with QE. Student education could be a modern case for debt free, interest free government money creation. No more student tuition fees.  This would be a monetary reform which only hurt the big banks.  Where are the far sighted politicians to start controlling this monopoly power? 

With the early solid Tory lead appearing to slip the contest may be more open than we ever thought. World wide electors surprise us. Will June 2017 UK be yet another one? 

Posted by Charles Bazlinton author The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom. Director of Local First CIC 'Promoting Local Banks'