No more Apron strings; A policy proposal for all generations to prosper

02/04/2021

The UK has a problem—not insurmountable—but it needs a 180-degree shift in policy, future long-term goals, and a different attitude towards its population as they journey through the ‘seven ages of man’.

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So what is the problem, then?

Debt, the servicing of debt, accrued by market forces taking the maximum from average incomes, noting the battle for people earned income from production that the free market rentiers/profiteers chase knowing the hierarchy of need, i.e., water, food, shelter, heat, clothing etc. If any of these could be monetised without regulation from a higher authority (i.e. Government), then prices could rise as scarcity is promoted to exploit the asset-less/small asset owners (bottom 90%, ref; Piketty) to bid against each other for a diminishing supply of a commodity, whilst they the owner/rentier do nothing. This theft of productive incomes (as a commodity price does not relate to real value plus small profit) leaves little or no surplus for childcare, education, unemployment and elderly care for the individual and/or family. So when these matters arise in the life of a citizen, there is often no money to spare in a household, even though the productive class have contributed to society via their production of goods and services (Ryan-Collins). 

And when wages go up, so do unregulated rents (Churchill 1909).

Over the past 50 years, we have seen the gradual consequences of a policy dogma of de-regulation (Hayek and Friedman’s Neoliberal doctrine of small government and market-led ‘invisible hand’ economic theory) in property prices as accommodation has become a commodity to be traded rather than the basic need that is shelter, which the UN declared a human right. (Dorling)

Highlights;

Credit Consumer Control Act (1971-3), Right-to-buy (1980 onwards), Complete abandonment of rent control post (1988), de-regulation of the retail banking sector (Big Bang 1986), de-regulation of the investment rental market (buy-to-let 1996), the financial crash via bad bundles of mortgage debt that was exposed as being almost worthless and therefore government intervention to stop a complete collapse via QE an initial 450 billion of fiat currency (2008), and the help-to-buy equity guarantee scheme (2013-2023) (Gov UK). 

All inflationary to limited assets, that is, land, the only area in public life where inflation is seen as good, as real estate is now a commodity. This is primarily because it’s the asset that governments of the past 50 years have decided should be the centre of a ‘money creation’ via speculation for shortfalls in income rather than higher wage growth to reflect increased productivity. ( ref; the Clinton surplus came via internal citizen private debt, rather than exports for exchange of dollars)
The stick of low wages, rewarded with the carrot of ‘money for nothing land inflation’ for those lucky enough to be invested in the land Ponzi scheme. (Hetherington Ryan-Collins, Shrubsole)