Economy & Trade
Hoarding wealth must have its limits
Everyone should have the opportunity to have enough and more.
People will always have greater or lesser wealth depending on a number of factors, such as good or bad fortune, abilities, expertise, priorities or effort, but everyone should have the opportunity to have enough and more. This involves a competent use and development of resources, but also requires limits to the amount individuals can hoard in unimaginative and unproductive coffers.
Apart from the limited commodities gold can be converted into, at the end of the day, as the story of Midas taught us, gold remains gold and we cannot eat, drink or breath it. Money is the same, it is primarily useful when it is in circulation, and as close to the good old transactions of the past: so many apples for so many pears. Of course, we all need money for “a rainy day” or future projects, but billions of dollars in bank accounts hardly qualify for that. Indeed, banks play with the investments they hold, so investments are not totally idle, but apart from the reckless risks bankers sometimes take, money can easily be invested in nefarious products and causes. So, banks should be nationalised, to ensure investments are used for ethical aims, but also to limit the amount any one person can deposit, that is, a sum that can be reasonably spent in a lifetime.
The political party will commit to:
- Working towards a fairer distribution of wealth (methods will vary from country to country and involve distribution across countries).
- Nationalising banks.
- Limiting the amount of money people can hoard.
National resources must take account of international needs
It would be obscene for half a country to live in luxury, while the other half is plagued by poverty and starvation. Similarly, parts of the globe should not languish in deprivation, when enough resources are available to resolve this deplorable state of affairs.
The political party will commit to:
- Ensuring that it is involved in and committed to international efforts to eradicate poverty, tackle climate change, defeat terrorism, promote justice and deal with other issues that require global solutions.
- Promoting public awareness regarding global issues and the responsibility individuals and governments have in resolving them.
Governments have a duty to invest in their nation’s infrastructure
Certain services and projects relating to a country’s infrastructure can be beyond the means of ordinary individuals or organisations, and when this is the case, governments should ensure that systems are in place to provide these, while not necessarily excluding the private sector from providing similar services.
The political party will commit to:
- Providing an efficient, comprehensive and well-maintained road network.
- Providing an efficient, comprehensive and well-maintained public transport system.
- Providing an efficient and reliable postal service.
- Facilitating international travel, while taking into account environmental factors.
- Ensuring that essential utilities, like water, electricity and clean energy, are provided at the lowest possible cost to the consumer, for reasonable levels of consumption, and at the fairest possible cost after that.
Trade between nations should be promoted and facilitated
Free trade should not be jeopardised.
Whilst it may be desirable for a country to produce a range of goods, so that in an emergency it could be self-sufficient, supporting ‘loss leaders’ is not the best way of achieving this and imaginative approaches that do not jeopardise free trade should be considered. Equally, import and export taxes may help support the infrastructure of nations and their international obligations, but these discriminate against goods merely because of their origin and adds an artificial cost to products.
Imported goods already incur extra transportation costs, they should not be penalised on top of this. However, progress on free trade requires international agreements, as unilateral action in favour of it, would be more likely to encourage rogue leaders to flout decency for personal or nationalistic gains.
The political party will commit to:
- Fostering free trade and abolishing protectionist laws, where these exist
- Abolishing import and export taxes through bilateral and multinational agreements
Companies and multinational corporations must be regulated fairly.
Corporations can often get away with murder.
Many laws allow them the pillage and exploit, without even giving anything back to the communities they devastate. Often, they pollute to murderous extents and are happy to factor in the fines that would ensue. The pharmaceutical and fuel industries, for example, are notorious for shattering lives and environments, while corrupt governments are happy to let them, as they ignore the plight of masses of their own people. Rigorous legislation must be in place, both at national and international level, to protect people and the environment.
The political party will commit to:
- changing national laws, and working to improve international ones, in order to protect people, indigenous communities and the environment from companies that ignore their corporate social responsibilities by putting profit before decency
- ensuring that the self-regulation of companies is never a replacement for external monitoring that aims to protect in a thorough, informed and effective manner
- making people responsible for crimes they commit in the name of their company, or the company commits in a cloud of veiled responsibility
- Legislating so that all companies contribute to the well-being of the communities they are operating in.
