Conservatives run up other people’s bills – unlike socialists, who always pay theirs
Voting for Theresa May’s minimum-wage Tories is like trying to dig your way out of a hole; they will only put you deeper into debt.
Yes – the headline paraphrases the late, unlamented Margaret Thatcher, but reverses her claim in the name of accuracy.
Here’s her original comment, in an infographic from Twitter – but pay attention to the weblink attached to it:
https://twitter.com/Avitusparta/status/946690350189568000
Read the article and the reason I edited the late Blue Baroness’s claim should be clear:
Companies in the UK are paying their workers so little that the taxpayer has to top up wages to the tune of £11bn a year. The four big supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons) alone are costing just under £1bn a year in tax credits and extra benefits payments.
This is a direct transfer from the rest of society to some of the largest businesses in the country. To put the figure in perspective, the total cost of benefit fraud last year was just £1bn. Corporate scrounging costs 11 times that.
Worse, this is a direct subsidy for poverty pay. If supermarkets and other low-paying employers know they can secure work even at derisory wages, since pay will be topped up by the state, they have no incentive to offer higher wages.
None of this makes sense. We are all, in effect, paying a huge sum of money so that we can continue to underpay the 22% of workers who are earning below the Living Wage – the level at which it is possible to live without government subsidies. The only possible beneficiaries are business owners.
So you can see very clearly that big businesses – which are predominantly run by people who vote Conservative, are members of the Conservative Party or are donors to the Conservative Party – are clearly refusing to pay their bills. As employers they have a duty to pay a reasonable amount to their workers.
Libertarians will undoubtedly be heading for the ‘Comment’ box to claim that all contracts are valid as employees have freely entered into them – but this of course ignores the fact that people are effectively coerced into accepting unfair wage offers because government policy on unemployment benefits forces them to accept any offers given to them, and this provides an incentive for businesses to keep those offers low.
So there is an argument that none of these contracts are valid as they are not entered into by people in equal positions. Hmm…
Socialists of course expect people to fully fund everything that benefits them. So, for example, the NHS was founded on the principle that everybody pays a little towards the health service, to ensure that all those who need its care will benefit from it. From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. It’s an insurance policy – but, strangely, capitalists approve of private insurance but criticise the system that funds public services. Odd people.
Consider also their willingness to use systems and services that are publicly-funded, while taking advantage of tax avoidance schemes to ensure that they don’t have to pay for them. That’s fraud and theft, isn’t it?
We may conclude that Mrs Thatcher was lying – and so is anybody who echoes her words or their meaning.
Also that the Conservative government is acting against contract law by forcing people into unfair employment conditions.
And that businesses are unfairly profiting from these harmful contracts.
I could go on to explain how this damages the UK economy by reducing the flow of cash through it, but you should be aware of this fact already – in practice.
It won’t change under a Conservative government because Conservatives are greedy and do not understand economics. So we need to end Conservative government.
Spread the word.
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Tories have always been about scrounging off the taxpayer, but disguising or hiding their scrounging with ploys like “privatisation” etc.
I think it was Hestletine who once boasted he paid this bills as late as possible because he liked to hang on to the money rather than pay those who had done work for him, The idea was that if they complained, they’d never work for hi again.
If we paid better wages, they would be spent into the economy, which in turn brings down our borrowing.