Here are three things I’ve read recently:
- Phil describes how opposition to a citizens’ income is based in part upon a “cult of work” – the idea that work is virtuous even if it is mind-numbing and exploitative.
- Kate says that Universal Credit is founded upon a “contempt for people in poverty”
The (highly misleading) idea behind Universal Credit (and its strict in-and-out-of-work jobfinding conditionaility) is that people only need a kick up the backside to get out of poverty. With Universal Credit, those kicks take the form of sanctions threats, constant reminders to find more hours in jobs that already pay almost nothing, and days on meaningless, fruitless, privately-provided “employability” courses. In other words – if you’re poor, stop being poor, or else. That’s it.
- Jonn notes that some right-wingers profess to love free markets unless they hurt right-wing tabloids – as when a threatened consumer boycott caused Paperchase to withdraw a promotion in the Daily Mail.
There’s a common theme here. The link is a recent interview with Corey Robin in Jacobin.
Corey describes how many right-wingers regard the marketplace in the way that they used to regard politics or the battlefield - as an arena where great men reveal their heroic virtues. The successful entrepreneur is a part of an “economic aristocracy”, a “maker and breaker of how we do things, and transforms our world”. Although this view is associated with Ayn Rand, Corey shows that it is by no means confined to her. A paper by Olivier Fournot supports Corey’s point. He shows how bosses present themselves as Hollywood-type heroes.
From this perspective, the otherwise-odd views described by Jonn, Kate and Phil become much more understandable. There should indeed be a “cult of work” because work is the arena in which humans reveal their virtue and worth to others. Contempt for the poor arises because poverty is indeed a moral failing; in not making a living, people demonstrate their lack of worth. And a boycott of the Daily Mail is to be deplored because the poor should not fight back against the heroes who have been a success in the market economy.
As with any good theory, Corey’s explains a lot of things that otherwise don’t make sense, for example:
- Why there has generally been little opposition on the right to the countless ways in which the economy is rigged in favour of the rich: restrictive intellectual property laws; planning restrictions; regulatory capture; corporate welfare, bank subsidies and so on. From the point of view of free markets, these things are deplorable. Perhaps instead we should regard them as our ancestors regarded honours and grants of land to successful generals – as prizes for revealing heroic virtues.
- Why so many markets that could help spread risk do not in fact exist, or are relatively undeveloped: GDP futures, house price futures, insurance against social care costs and so on. The function of markets is not to allocate risk and resources, but to enable “great men” to make money and so reveal their heroism. This is why so much financial innovation has been downright dangerous rather than of the useful form Robert Shiller proposed.
- Why we defer to successful businessmen. It’s because they have revealed leadership skills and virtues. Whether these skills are transferable, or whether business success was just dumb luck is not important. We ask of business leaders what Napoleon asked of generals: I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good. It’s not just the hard right that does this. Gordon Brown forever praised “courageous” business leaders, and just listen to how the Today programme tends to fawn over them.
- Why so many on the right are relaxed about inequality even though it often arises from market failure. It’s because success even in a rigged market is to be applauded. The general who wins a battle is seen as a hero even if the battle wasn’t fought on a level field. Why should things be different in other domains in which heroism is revealed.
In these ways, I find Corey’s theory illuminating. Maybe we economists have missed an important fact about markets. They are not just technical means for allocating resources. They are also freighted with moral meanings - though of course we cannot agree what these are.
«people only need a kick up the backside to get out of poverty. [ ... ] In other words – if you’re poor, stop being poor, or else. That’s it.»
That theory though, as far as the middle and higher classes have seen it, is entirely correct: many more millions of immigrants from poor countries have found jobs than there were and are unemployed people, because immigrants from poor countries are willing to off-the-book for £4-5/h and to live 8 to a room sharing bunk beds on shifts, because they have a "Thank you Sir, may I have some more" resignation.
Posted by: Blissex | November 26, 2017 at 02:19 PM
«Maybe we economists have missed an important fact about markets. They are not just technical means for allocating resources. They are also freighted with moral meanings»
Ah, very funny, especially as our "marxist" blogger writes this. Well, political economists (as opposed to Economists like G Mankiw or L Summers) seems to have figured that out a long time ago, and our blogger mentioned an obscure scotsman from the 18th century as to that. A rediscovery of that is perhaps long overdue :-).
Posted by: Blissex | November 26, 2017 at 02:25 PM
«shows how bosses present themselves as Hollywood-type heroes»
There is a whole industry of very well paid image consultants that works on that, at the expense of the companies for which the bosses work, and which pay then the massive "compensation" that bosses demand thanks to their manufactured "hero" status.
Self dealing can be an art form...
Posted by: Blissex | November 26, 2017 at 02:48 PM
Kate's piece on Universal Credit is powerful. I have recent experience of claiming UC on behalf of someone who is very, very distant from the labour market. (She was on Employment Support Allowance before). We are waiting to see if UC will help her or cast her into destitution.
The attitudes towards the poor and towards benefit claimants has not been helped by the last Labour government's "No Ifs, No Buts" campaign against (imaginary?) benefit cheats. The campaign was an example (among others) of Labour's betrayal of its constituency.
Labour must revert to its historic mission and proudly and loudly start batting for the poor and for working people if it is to regain power. Blair and Brown were an aberation.
Rant over.
Posted by: TickyW | November 26, 2017 at 03:05 PM
We are bound by capital(ism): us poor people can't do without the work of capital. So, “the rich as heroes”....got to rank as the easiest political mass marketing treadmill to jump on, ever. Hence our current bunch of charlatans, the authors of Universal Credit, and the Brexit debacle, are enabled. Kate asks “Why does government think it has a free pass on this?” I'm asking is it because they know, or they don't know, “the banality of evil” ? Or, perhaps its the fault of our msm journalists/commentators who say they must, (for the sake of 'balance') stay within the bounds of what they imagine their audience, the poor people,'think' never mind what they don't know.
Posted by: e | November 26, 2017 at 05:17 PM
Try this link. The title says it all.
https://theconversation.com/getting-rich-is-largely-about-luck-shame-the-wealthy-dont-want-to-hear-it-77111
Posted by: Arthur Murray | November 26, 2017 at 06:25 PM
«Kate asks “Why does government think it has a free pass on this?”»
The answer is very easy indeed: because a large number of affluent voters in marginal seats care most about zooming (southern) property prices. G Osborne for example is reported as:
http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/inside-westminster-george-osborne-s-housing-boom-will-echo-into-the-future-8869835.html
«“Hopefully we will get a little housing boom and everyone will be happy as property values go up,” George Osborne is said to have quipped at a Cabinet meeting earlier this year.»
The «current bunch of charlatans» have gained 1m votes between 2010 and 2015, and another 2m votes between 2015 and 2017, because typical affluent voters have been gaining £10,000-£40,000 per year tax-free work-free thanks to what they admire as heroes of wealth creation, not charlatans.
Also the same affluent voters are very happy that less money is being spent on what they think of as idle undeserving frauds, also known as "claimants", another quote:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/02/nick-clegg-george-osborne-cut-welfare-poorest-boost-tory-popularity
«Welfare for Osborne was just a bottomless pit of savings, and it didn’t really matter what the human consequences were, because focus groups had shown that the voters they wanted to appeal to were very anti-welfare, and therefore there was almost no limit to those anti-welfare prejudices»
It's called "class war".
Posted by: Blissex | November 26, 2017 at 07:34 PM
And market imperfections are not to be cured but exploited as that is the fastest path to wealth.
Posted by: Lord | November 27, 2017 at 05:17 AM
Substitute universal work for universal income and everyone should be happy.
Everyone who wants an income must have a job , but everyone who wants a job gets one - full time. What the private sector misses is filled in with government jobs.
Set up the pay/benefit structure for the gov't-guarantee jobs so that they pay somewhat less than their private-sector counterparts , so there is always an incentive for people to move up the skill/pay ladder.
Posted by: Marko | November 27, 2017 at 05:37 AM
Indeed, this extends to right-wing dispassion for markets.
A strong argument for markets, from the time of Adam Smith to now, is that markets are the best form of economic organisation for giving people what they want. By the invisible hand of the market, producers react to the demands of consumers to give them what the want without any hint of charity - Smith's famous quote rings true.
And yet, when business owners operating in a market react to the tastes and desires of young people by selling them avocado toasts and sandwiches in cafes, do the Right, supposed champions of the free market, praise the market for giving people what they want? Absolutely not, they would rather accuse young people of misspending their money (a dollar spent in a cafe is, after all, a dollar not spent pumping up housing prices). Because markets, from a right-wing perspective, never were, in the Smithian sense, about best satisfying the needs of the populace, but rather about depicting the rich as morally superior to the poor.
And Tories wonder why young people turn to Corbyn, when they are the ones who condemn the young having their desires satisfied under a free market.
Posted by: Fred Subere-Albawy | November 27, 2017 at 05:51 AM
The concept of 'strong leader' seems to imply success however impossible the project or unfavourable the circumstances. This is unrealistic, sometimes all a leader can do is follow Churchill's dictum 'keep bu^^ering on' until circumstances change.
From literature and drama and military books we get the idea of a charismatic leader who can overcome all difficulties. But for every platoon commander who wins a victory against all odds there are nine more who ended up shot. Drawing ideas of political leadership from the military or literary playbook seems futile.
Easy enough to add to the literary twaddle regarding leadership, the bookshops are full of it and J Paxman added his 3 penn'th in the FT recently re Political Dullards.
The trouble with British government is it cannot decide whether to be like America or be like France/Germany/Japan. On the one hand it likes the go-getting, can-do attitude of America but dare not face the social consequences. On the other hand our parliamentarians regard careful deliberation and careful implementation as highly inconvenient, to be avoided at all (taxpayer's) costs.
As it is we will spend the next 20 years re-building a highly unsuitable parliament building housing a highly unsuitable parliamentary structure whilst the incumbents squabble over how to be neither America nor Europe. And the wiseacres will still be bitching about 'if only a strong leader'.
Posted by: rogerh | November 27, 2017 at 06:46 AM
«likes the go-getting, can-do attitude of America»
A large part of the english elites like the social darwinist culture of the USA south, the "cavalier" mindset with masters and serfs; the "go-getting, can-do" is more the yankee attitude, and is not so popular here.
«but dare not face the social consequences»
Well, while a part of the middle and working class is also social darwinist, most are nordic-style socialdemocrats, so a texas-style culture is not welcome.
Posted by: Blissex | November 27, 2017 at 11:47 AM
Hi Chris. Agree wholeheartedly with your comment about the BBC and business leaders. What makes James Dyson and Tim Witherspoon of Witherspoons Ltd so qualified? Yes they run a business and yes they are currently making profit. Any leader of a business is going to promote what benifits the business. The BBC promotes their very biased views. These celebrity business leaders are a very very small part of a very large economy. We need unbiased reasoned information and views not self promoting celebrity business leaders.
MPC.
Posted by: mpc | November 27, 2017 at 12:11 PM
We'll never be like America, because America is America largely thanks to its vast open spaces and natural resources.
However, the infatuation that many Brits (especially less-educated ones -- the highly educated look more to Europe) have with American culture may have gone some way to explaining the Brexit vote.
https://medium.com/@Metatone/s-yorks-brexit-and-usa-philia-20d90a7790a5
Incidentally, what could be done to cultivate a more "yankee" attitude in Britain, given that I suspect that this is better for productivity and innovation than either the "cavalier" or "Nordic" models?
Posted by: George Carty | November 27, 2017 at 02:32 PM
«cultivate a more "yankee" attitude in Britain»
The "nordic" model has been pretty good for most people, including its less progressive german version.
But what about promoting, as to productivity and innovation, the mid and northern english and scottish spirit? A bit more Manchester or Sheffield or Glasgow spirit, but with less pollution and worker poverty?
Perhaps England could do with a bit less southern english obsession with becoming courtly Eton/Oxbridge gentlefolk living off rents from property, or trading pieces of paper, and a bit more respect and admiration for "vulgar tradesmen" engineers making stuff, providing services, and organizing business and other "common" type of work...
Sometimes I think that England is still too pagan, and a bit too unfamiliar with the christian idea that Jesus and Joseph the carpenters show that all work is worthy, which is at the basis even of right-wing christian-democrat parties (notably absent in anglo-american countries but for the methodist base of Labour).
Posted by: Blissex | November 27, 2017 at 07:11 PM
The idea of "crony capitalism" is a huge theme on the libertarian right. They never stop droning on about it. I don't know who or what Robin is looking at, but the notion that the right ignores the "captured economy" (new book by libertarian bigwig Brink Lindsey) is way off the mark.
I think the reason it FEELS like they're not however is due to the fact that they still support a certain free market ideal, which to the left just IS defending an economy by and for the rich. And it's not wholly off the mark. There's no reason to think that if the economy were truly actually legitimately free you wouldn't have massive inequality and a system skewed toward owners of capital. You'd just have a somewhat different constellation of winners than what currently exists.
Posted by: Dain | November 27, 2017 at 11:03 PM