This is the position of one Huw Pill, the top economist of the Bank of England. The former Goldman Sachs banker, who has a £1.5 million home and an annual salary of £180,000, is arguing that the desire to combat increasing costs with increases to wages is not realistic. At a time when the likes of Nestlé, PepsiCo and McDonald’s are reporting boosted sales due to higher prices, and during a time where energy companies are making record-breaking profits, is it reasonable to declare the desire to be paid fairly is unacceptable, as Mr Pill is doing?
I wrote about this quite recently. Wages do not drive inflation. That’s an excuse by these companies raking in huge profits, whilst people go hungry. To suggest there’s no means to pay people a fair, living wage is a joke. The ignorant among us might make nonsensical arguments to the contrary; I have no time for the people who have become willing corporate sheep. We are being fleeced, and in the UK we have the added folly of Brexit to contribute to our woes.
Instead of accepting that we need to be poorer, how about corporations pay their fair share of tax, how about a general wealth tax, and how about a government that’s prepare to stand up to the greed and cold cruelty of heartless corporations?
Coalition of the Brave 
I’m with you all the way, Ben! ‘Tis the same here in the U.S. … the rich get richer while the rest of us struggle to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. And Congress … what do they do? They roll back regulations on corporations, roll back programs in health care, education, and labour that would actually help people, and refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …
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Reblogged this on Filosofa's Word and commented:
Our friend Ben Berwick writes from across the pond of a problem that we here in the U.S., perhaps in every country in the world, are well familiar with: wealth inequality. The Covid pandemic, while taking a heavy toll on the average household finances, greatly boosted the bottom lines of the largest corporations. Did they share that wealth with the people whose blood, sweat and tears go into making their products? Hell no! Here in the U.S., it has been 14 years since the federal minimum wage rate has been raised, allowing greedy corporations to see record profits while walking on the backs of their workers. And people wonder why I have a basic dislike for the wealthy. Read Ben’s take on it …
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Thanks for the reblog Jill!
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‘Twas my pleasure, Ben!
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Hey, Ben, one of Jill’s readers here.
The basic fallacy of capitalism is that any rise in costs, including increased wages, must be passed on to comsumers. To some, this makes sense, but not to me. Capitalists, otherwise known as the wealthy, choose to pass on these cost increases to protect their profit margins. What they do not admit to is continually increasing their profit margins, and one way to do that is to pass on the cost increases.
What we, the consumers, must ask ourselves is: Are we willing to pay for their increasing profit margins by paying the prices as set by the capitalists, while at the same time losing buying power by accepting lower wages and poorer benefits?
As long as we continue to be corporate sheep, wealth inequity is going to widen. One way to stop this is to elect small-g governors who would place limits on profit margins while increasing taxes on corporate income and profits. But this is not going to happen anytime soon, since there are hardly any small-g governors who would be willing to even consider such things.
Therefore, in my mind, we need to stop being sheep and refuse to buy the products of capitalism. We need to find a way to first stop living beyond our means (using credit to buy things) while finding ways to barter for goods and services for those things we absolutely need to have to survive. By using monies controlled by governments who in turn are controlled by capitalists, we are playing into their hands.
I am not saying I know how to do this, but this is what I see as a necessary step in starting to take control back from the wealthy. If we continue on as we are, we might as well bare our backs and let them whip us to death like they once did to slaves, for that is what we will become!
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We have to accept that we’re poorer? Because the rich took it ALL?
FUCK THAT NOISE!!!
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