Our financial system is not working.

It is constructed on lies: the parable of progress, the parable that revenue comes earlier than individuals, and the parable that wealth is extra essential than equity.

If we wish a sustainable society, we’d like a brand new ethical code for the financial system.

On this video, I set out ten commandments for a simply financial system – rules that put individuals earlier than revenue, justice earlier than greed, and sustainability earlier than progress.

These commandments demand:

• Individuals earlier than revenue
• Honest rewards for work
• Inclusion, not exclusion
• Respect for the earth
• Finance that serves life
• Honest taxation
• Transparency and accountability
• Measuring what actually issues

It is a manifesto for a good and sustainable financial system. One we might all be proud to stay in.

The audio model is right here:

That is the transcript:

Our financial system is not working.

It is constructed on lies.

It is constructed on the parable of progress.

It is constructed on the parable that revenue comes earlier than individuals.

It is constructed on the parable that wealth is extra essential than equity.

None of those are true.

If we’re to have a sustainable life and we’re to fulfill the wants of individuals, what we’d like is a brand new ethical code for our financial system.

I’ve thought of this, and what I’ll recommend is that we’d like ten commandments for a simply financial system.

Commandment 1 – We should put individuals earlier than revenue

Commandment certainly one of a simply financial system may be very easy. It’s that  ’We should put individuals earlier than revenue.’

The financial system’s job is to feed, home, care, and educate individuals, and make sure that they’re secure and may stay with out concern from cradle to grave.

Markets are instruments to ship these targets. They don’t seem to be gods. They don’t seem to be the individuals we’ve got to serve, or the mechanisms that we’ve got to serve. As an alternative, individuals all the time come first. Individuals come earlier than revenue.

Commandment 2 – Do not hoard wealth

The second commandment of a simply financial system is  ’Do not hoard wealth.’

Wealth that sits idle, outdoors our financial system, sitting in monetary markets the place it is used for hypothesis, corrodes the society that we stay in.

Lease-seeking, fairly actually, by overcharging for homes, or by extracting extreme income by the fees that monopolies impose upon us, and asset stripping by speculative exercise in monetary markets; all these items strip worth from you and from me as working individuals.

What we’d like is shared wealth that builds energy.

That invests in our futures.

That creates the protection for future generations in order that local weather change might be managed.

That ensures that everyone has an opportunity. However as a substitute, wealth is being hoarded away from most individuals in society, and we’re all struggling as a consequence.

Commandment 3 – There needs to be truthful rewards for work

The third commandment of a good and simply financial system is that ‘  There needs to be truthful rewards for work.’

We’ve not bought truthful rewards for work within the UK proper now. Far too many individuals are at work and residing in poverty. They can not make their wages cowl the fundamental prices of residing, from the hire to placing meals on the desk, to paying the utility payments, to making sure that their kids are clothed, that they will purchase a faculty uniform, that they will take them away for the weekend each every so often, and even have the posh of a vacation, and that fundamental different wants are met.

This is not taking place,  and our minimal wage does not assure it.

Our previous age pension, the state previous age pension, is even worse. It is method beneath the extent of the minimal wage.

We’ve not bought truthful rewards for work and truthful rewards for individuals who’ve retired from work.  We simply aren’t placing sufficient emphasis on safety in order that work actually does pay for individuals.

As an alternative, the entire focus of our financial system is on exploitation, and exploitation is little higher than legalised theft.

We will need to have truthful rewards for work in our financial system, or we are able to by no means have social justice. We are able to by no means beat the curse of the far-right politicians who say that every one of those points are attributable to migrants or anyone else they could select to select upon.

We can not have a rustic the place individuals can stay securely and safely alongside their neighbours, realizing that everyone has the dignity that truthful rewards pay. Commandment three may be very clear. We should pay truthful rewards for work.

Commandment 4 – We should embody the excluded

The fourth commandment of a good and simply financial system may be very clear. ‘  We should embody the excluded.’

Poverty and discrimination are usually not excuses for individuals to be left on the sidelines of our society. It is unjust that that is the case now.

That so a lot of our guidelines on advantages make sure that  a few of the poorest individuals within the UK are those that can not work as a result of they’re merely unable to take action due to disabilities which can be of no fault of their very own, is totally unjustified.

And we additionally must be clear that there are too many people who find themselves prejudiced inside the world through which we stay. Migrants; individuals who have autism and ADHD; individuals who have sexual orientations that some individuals discover uncomfortable; individuals who don’t share our pores and skin color, no matter it is likely to be. All of those give rise to prejudices and exclude individuals.

An financial system that leaves individuals outdoors is a damaged financial system.

The one financial system that may work is an inclusive financial system, an financial system that embraces us all as we’re, that respects our variety, our equality, and supplies us with inclusivity. We should respect commandment 4 and embody the excluded.

Commandment 5 -We respect the earth

Commandment 5 for a good and simply financial system is that ‘  We should respect the earth.’

We stay on one planet. It is the one one we have. It is nonetheless the one one in the entire of the universe that we all know supplies the situations for all times.

Our land, our air, our water, and our biodiversity are our inheritance from billions of years of earlier inhabitants of this planet.

We’ve been plundering that inheritance.

We’ve been stealing what we’ve got been given freely by nature, and we have taken it from future generations to make use of for ourselves.

We have created a distinct planet as a consequence. A planet that’s warming. A planet that’s residing past its limits, and now we must always respect that reality. We must always stay inside our means, or we danger dropping all the pieces.

Commandment 5 says ‘We should respect the earth’, and there’s actually no different commandment which can be as nice as this one, as a result of if we do not do that, there’s nothing left for us to fret about.

Commandment 6 – Finance should serve life

Commandment six for a good and simply society and financial system says, ‘  Finance should serve life.’

Let’s be clear. Cash is important. It is essential. We’d like it. It is helpful. Let’s not knock it. We’d like banks. We’d like a finance trade. We’d like it to work. However cash just isn’t created to serve cash itself, and but that is how we have remodeled our financial system.

When we’ve got politicians who say that the  Metropolis of London and its monetary establishments are the ‘jewel within the crown’ of the UK, they have all their priorities improper.

We should put finance instead. It exists to serve the true financial system; the true financial system that meets our wants for housing, for care, for training, for meals, for providers, and all these issues that entertain us.

Banks and markets are essential. I am not going to knock them and say we do not want them, however they’re our servants and never our masters.  Commandment six says, ‘Finance should serve life’, and that is completely true.

Commandment 7 – Open the books

Commandment seven of a good and simply financial system says, ‘  Open the books.’

Every thing have to be clear in an financial system that works.

There is no such thing as a room for dishonest.

There is no such thing as a room for non-payment of tax.

There is no such thing as a room for unaccountability.

There is no such thing as a room for corporations to say, “We need not let you know what we’re doing, despite the fact that we’ve got the privilege of restricted legal responsibility that protects us from the results of our actions and imposes the dangers on you.”

We should stay in a society that’s clear.

We should stay in a society the place there isn’t any room for a tax haven.

We should stay in a society the place these with whom we commerce are accountable for what they do.

We should stay in a society the place tax cheats are held to account.

We should stay in a society the place the logic is that daylight is justice.

We have to shine a lightweight on dishonest and eliminate it as a result of solely then can we stay comfortably with one another, realizing that we’re all working on a degree taking part in area, which, only for the sake of the document, is precisely what financial principle says we’d like, if we’re all to prosper. So there’s nothing radical about commandment seven, which says ‘We will need to have open books.’ It is the precondition for a powerful financial system.

Commandment 8 – Make taxes truthful

Commandment eight of a good and simply financial system says, ‘  Make taxes truthful.’

The primary situation for making this work is to grasp what taxes do, and the overwhelming majority of politicians, tax consultants, political commentators, economists, and others do not perceive tax.

It is a huge declare to make, however I say it completely justifiably. Taxes don’t fund the federal government.

Deep down, individuals just like the Financial institution of England, individuals just like the Treasury, know this, but it surely’s a really handy fable that they promote that the federal government is funded by taxpayer cash, despite the fact that there isn’t any such factor,  as a result of that lets them constrain what authorities can obtain by saying that individuals will not pay extra tax.

However the fact is, there’s capability to pay extra tax within the UK financial system. The rich have the means to pay extra. Lots of the wealthiest pay much less in whole as a proportion of their revenue and positive aspects than do these on median common earnings on this nation.

We’ve a deeply unfair tax system.

A tax system that’s hardly progressive in any respect.

A tax system that, in some circumstances, penalises the poor excessively due to expenses that are completely unreasonable for all the pieces from a tv license – which is a ballot tax – to the way in which through which VAT operates, the way in which through which council tax operates and varied different unfair taxes, and which due to this fact promotes inequality and abuse.

We’d like a tax system that’s genuinely progressive. That ensures that everyone makes a good contribution. However that almost all of all, the rich pay the most important share as a result of they need to, and that is completely doable.  My Taxing Wealth Report reveals how.

We might have taxes that serve the frequent good  of residing in a society the place inequality is managed so that everyone feels able to being in contact with their neighbour. Commandment eight says, ‘Make tax truthful,’ and we must always.

Commandment 9 – Do not worship wealth or energy

Commandment 9 for a good and simply financial system says,  ’Do not worship wealth or energy.’

Giant corporations are usually not sovereign. They don’t rule, and but our flesh pressers bounce to all the pieces that they demand.

Governments needs to be answerable to individuals on this nation. That is who they serve. That is what democracy is all about.  They should not be actually leaping to the tune of the rich or the businesses that the rich personal.

Management signifies that they need to be capable of work out the place their obligation lies, and it’s not with the dominant. These are usually not the individuals they serve. They’ve already bought sufficient energy.  The entire level of presidency is to deal with the imbalances of energy inside our society and to guarantee that these with out are represented pretty. That is what a democracy’s about.

So commandment 9 says, ‘Do not worship wealth or energy’, however do as a substitute guarantee that those that are weak and weak are heard, and it is vital to a good financial system.

Commandment 10 -Measure what issues

Lastly, commandment ten of a good financial system says, ‘  Measure what issues.’ And that is actually essential, as a result of until we really choose applicable targets for the administration of our financial system, we won’t ship a good and simply financial system.

GDP just isn’t our financial God.

Development has not delivered well-being.  We have tried it for many years, and we’re in a large number. We’re in a hopeless mess of inequality, injustice, local weather change, and potential collapse.

GDP as a measure isn’t any good as a result of it values nothing that basically issues. It simply counts the kilos.

True prosperity is predicated upon neighborhood. So what we’ve got to do is measure how we’re caring, how a lot justice we’re delivering, whether or not we’re sustainable, and whether or not our communities work or not. Success is when everybody belongs, and that is what we needs to be measuring.

Commandment ten says, ‘Measure what issues.’ And what actually issues is our social inclusivity.

Abstract

These ten commandments summarise what is important for a simply financial system.

They put individuals earlier than revenue.

They put work earlier than exploitation.

They put the earth earlier than greed.

They put justice earlier than progress.

That is what we’d like in a good and simply financial system.

They’re a manifesto for a superb society, a superb financial system, a good world, and a spot the place we must always all need to stay free from concern.

Please work in accordance with these ten commandments, as a result of should you do, we’ll find yourself higher off.

Observe of thanks: I want to thank commentator Cliff B, who impressed this, and I hope he doesn’t thoughts that I performed round together with his concepts just a little.

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