Back to average politics. After fourteen years of corruption and fatal Tories, the Labour organization government will put this country back on its feet. one more time justice and decency will prevail, public services will be rebuilt, our position in the planet will be restored, we will return to the country we know. That's what they say.
However, what is this ‘normality’ about which Tell the experts And the politicians of the left and the center? It is the most abnormal policy in the past of the world. Consciously or not, its pewers mention a burden-bearing period, stretched between 1945 and 1975, erstwhile wealth and power were shared in certain rich countries, almost everyone could live in decent conditions, have decent working conditions and wages, benefit from ambitious, well-funded public services, and an extended network of economical safety prevented falling into poverty. Never before in the past of the world, nor always later, There was no specified thing..
Even in those years, however, the general well-being in rich countries was supported by utmost exploitation, vertigo and Violence made to mediocre countries. We lived in a bubble, limited in time and geographically, in which truly extraordinary things happened. And someway we think it was normal.
This “normal” policy was the consequence of what historians call the following economies ‘great compression’ – a drastic simplification in inequality caused by 2 planet wars. Physical demolition of assets, failure of colonies and overseas estates, inflation, very advanced taxes, wage and price control, rationing and nationalization required by the war economy, as well as the effects of emerging democracy and organisation of work in many economically strong countries importantly reduced income and the state of possession of powerfuls, as well as greatly improved the position of mediocre after the war. For respective decades, we have benefited from these large shocks. But now their effect has weakened. We are going back to actual “normality”.
A multicentennial history, including our own, shows that the basic state of politics is not the redistribution of goods and general prosperity, but spiral of accumulation of goods by rich people, utmost exploitation of workers, the acquisition of common resources and the imposition of charges for their use, extortion, coercion and violence. Normality is simply a society in which individual who is stronger is right. average is oligarchy.
In a well-known book from 2017, entitled The large Leveller ("great alignment") historian Walter Scheidel explains that so far only 4 forces had the power to reverse increased inequality: mass mobilisation of wartime (as in the 2 planet wars), full and violent revolution, state collapse and devastating epidemics. And that's our choice.
Scheidel besides shows how the wartime economy turned into protective, sometimes forceful. For example, after defeating Japan occupation government The U.S. led by General Douglas MacArthur sought the alleged democratisation of nipponese economical institutions to guarantee "wide distribution of revenue and ownership of means of production and trade.’ For this intent applied advanced taxes on property, reaching even 90%, he dispelled the conglomerates, demanded the introduction of regulations giving workers the right to association, strike and higher wages, organized a comprehensive agricultural reform, dissolving large holdings and separating land between peasants.
He besides carried out fiscal reform, yet bringing the highest income taxation at 75%, and the introduction of inheritance taxation on the largest estates, reaching 70%. As a consequence of these reforms, gross from capital was almost completely destroyed and the political and economical democracy of Japan was built almost from scratch.
All the large warring countries then underwent a akin change. In the United States, the highest rate of property taxation (inherited) increased to 71 percent in 1941, while in 1944 the highest rate of income taxation reached 94%. National War Time labour Council in the United States She raised workers' wages, at the same time without allowing wage increases in managerial positions. The number of union workers has gone up.
UK highest income taxation rate in 1941–1952 was maintained at 98 percent. It took decades to bring it down to its present level. Purchase tax luxury goods were introduced in 1940 and its rate later increased to 100 percent. The percent of gross collected by the richest 0.1% of the population fell from 7% in 1937 to just over 1% in 1975.
The absence of 1 of the 4 major disasters results in an inevitable accumulation of income and capital in the hands of fewer people and a recurrence of oligarchy. The Oligarchs are people who translate their excessive economical power into excessive political power. They form politics to their needs. Scheidel shows that polarisation is besides increasing as inequality increases and dysfunctions in policies that favour rich people, as a competent and proactive state poses a threat to their interests. United Kingdom These dysfunctions brought in toriesThat's what Donald Trump says.
The Oligarchs are seeking to abolish the controls, which is why British institutions specified as the Environment Agency and the Executive Body on Safety and wellness have been so thoroughly eviscerated. Same The pursuit was behind the brexit. The Oligarchs want people They stopped protesting. They want a national Health care has fallento justify its privatisation. They want to direct politicians and national tv that they can leading behind the gild. And they get what they want, distorting all aspect of the country's life. They're charging money into the political movements of the neoliberals and the far right that aid capital solve his an eternal problem – the problem of democracy. The historical trajectory is headed for injustice. but it's being broken by another cataclysm.
If we want to return wealthy countries to "normality" from 1945 to 1975, that is, return to redistribution of goods, to a common goal as a country, decent public services and a solid network of economical security, low unemployment and good wages – and I think that is what most people want – we request a policy that is not only abnormal but unprecedented.
Breaking the trajectory of increasing injustice would mean going beyond Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto 2019, not to mention Non-free offer Keira Starmer, who walks around the business of the rich. We would gotta do what planet wars have done, but without force and physical destruction: we would request a MacArthur peacetime program that would overthrow the oligarchs.
The political parties would gotta overcome the fear of the economical power of the rulers, developers, fuel companies, hedge funds, presidents of investment banks and a full bunch of oligarchs currently funding and affecting our policies.
The longer we hold this confrontation, the stronger and more rooted the power of the oligarchs becomes. If we want just a small democracy, equality, integrity and a functioning state, we must not deal so much with those who hold economical power, which is Starmer's quest, as much as give them a battle.
**
George Monbiot – writer and environmental activist. He publishes in the Guardian. Last year his book was published by the Publishing home of Political Critics Regenesis. How to feed the planet without devouring the planet.
Article published on the author's blog. From English she translated Catherine the Formers.
