Labour has introduced a series of bans since it came to office. While many of these are positive, the elephant in the room is that capital has been left largely untouched by Labour regulation. Instead, the governing party has focused on restricting people’s freedoms rather than on wealth extraction.
Labour: authoritarianism on people
Labour has banned businesses from offering refills on high-sugar drinks, reduced the threshold for what’s considered high sugar, and is moving to ban high-caffeine drinks for under-16s. This is likely beneficial, but does take us further in the direction of a ‘nanny state’. What’s key is that these are regulations on people, not regulations on capital.
The whole point of labour is to curb the power of capital and increase the value of workers (those who actually do the jobs and don’t just live off an investment bubble). Yet UK assets, largely owned by the super-rich, are worth £138bn, and the richest 1% own more wealth than 70% of the country.
The governing party also plans to ban smoking for anyone born after 2009. As well as being another regulation on people rather than capital, this a logically faulty policy. Like the ‘war’ on drugs, this will only bring the tobacco market underground, reducing tax re-balancing and potentially age restrictions. The illicit market for rolling tobacco already accounts for 24% of the entire market in the UK.
Labour has also introduced greater restrictions on free movement (immigration). These include immigrants needing A-Level standard English, restrictions on families of workers coming and other policies. Yet again, this is a regulation on people rather than wealth extraction.
No regulations on capital extraction
Instead, Labour should focus on regulating capital, rather than people. Everyday essentials and convenience middlemen should be in public ownership to stop the extraction of profit from small/ medium businesses and people.
Most of the large new businesses that everyone uses are about middleman convenience through a website or app, rather than product innovation. For instance, Amazon and Ebay bring sellers of products into one place on the internet. Uber and Bolt brings taxi drivers into one place through an app, bringing convenience to people. Deliveroo and JustEat bring restaurants and groceries into one place on an app, also offering convenience.
These are all digital infrastructure marketplaces for people and small/ medium businesses. Any modern socialist society would bring them into public ownership at the market rate, as facilitators of the economy.
Instead, Labour is regulating people, rather than unbridled wealth extraction from workers and small/ medium enterprise.
Featured image via the Canary
By James Wright
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