[h=1]IGNORE THE ‘PRO-BUSINESS’ RHETORIC: A PRO-RICH GOVERNMENT IS ANTI-BUSINESS[/h]
Post date:
4 Mar 2015 - 10:47pm
Despite the best efforts of some of its members to discredit it with market rigging, tax avoidance, and unjustified bonuses, the business community is still held in awe in Britain. Any suggestion of higher taxes for top earners or tougher regulations on the abuse of market power is howled down as dangerously anti-business. Politicians who are serious about the nation’s prosperity and its citizens’ welfare, it is accepted, need to be “pro-business”.
But what does it mean to be pro-business? First, we should not confuse a pro-business stance with a pro-rich stance. Not all rich people are business people, or “wealth creators”, as they are often called these days. Some of them have simply inherited vast sums of money, while others have created wealth elsewhere and are simply enjoying their lives in the UK.
These people of course spend money and indirectly create jobs and income in that process. But job – and income – creation through consumption can be done by anyone, if they are given money. Indeed, you could argue that poorer people are more effective in this regard, as they tend to spend a higher share of their income, creating more demands for business. Thus transferring income from the “idle rich” to poorer sections of society through taxation may actually be a pro-business policy.
Then we need to separate the chaff from the wheat. Being pro-business doesn’t – and shouldn’t – mean leniency towards illegal or semi-legal activities by business people and companies, as some Tory party donors and rightwing newspapers want it to mean.
Actually, being soft on rule-breaking businesses is anti-business. When some corporations and business people do not pay their fair shares of taxes, they are increasing the tax burdens of other members of society, including other businesses. When unscrupulous business people break the basic rules of competition, whether it is rigging foreign exchange markets or not paying the minimum wage, they are hurting the rest of the business community.
Now, having accepted that being pro-business does not mean being lenient with law-breakers, can we at least say that it means putting the interests of law-abiding businesses above other things? No – a democratically elected government that does such a thing would be in dereliction of its duty.
*Read the rest of the article at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/03/pro-business-tax-av...
Post date:
4 Mar 2015 - 10:47pm
Despite the best efforts of some of its members to discredit it with market rigging, tax avoidance, and unjustified bonuses, the business community is still held in awe in Britain. Any suggestion of higher taxes for top earners or tougher regulations on the abuse of market power is howled down as dangerously anti-business. Politicians who are serious about the nation’s prosperity and its citizens’ welfare, it is accepted, need to be “pro-business”.
But what does it mean to be pro-business? First, we should not confuse a pro-business stance with a pro-rich stance. Not all rich people are business people, or “wealth creators”, as they are often called these days. Some of them have simply inherited vast sums of money, while others have created wealth elsewhere and are simply enjoying their lives in the UK.
These people of course spend money and indirectly create jobs and income in that process. But job – and income – creation through consumption can be done by anyone, if they are given money. Indeed, you could argue that poorer people are more effective in this regard, as they tend to spend a higher share of their income, creating more demands for business. Thus transferring income from the “idle rich” to poorer sections of society through taxation may actually be a pro-business policy.
Then we need to separate the chaff from the wheat. Being pro-business doesn’t – and shouldn’t – mean leniency towards illegal or semi-legal activities by business people and companies, as some Tory party donors and rightwing newspapers want it to mean.
Actually, being soft on rule-breaking businesses is anti-business. When some corporations and business people do not pay their fair shares of taxes, they are increasing the tax burdens of other members of society, including other businesses. When unscrupulous business people break the basic rules of competition, whether it is rigging foreign exchange markets or not paying the minimum wage, they are hurting the rest of the business community.
Now, having accepted that being pro-business does not mean being lenient with law-breakers, can we at least say that it means putting the interests of law-abiding businesses above other things? No – a democratically elected government that does such a thing would be in dereliction of its duty.
*Read the rest of the article at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/03/pro-business-tax-av...
