Hey, kids! Oldies in suits just made everything you want more expensive!
Rishi Sunak: the richest man in the UK is the UK’s prime minister. He isn’t affected by inflation or interest rate rises – but he, his government, the Bank of England and businesses are all determined to make sure that you are. How long are you going to sit there and let them mess with you, because you’re “not interested in politics”?
Now do you get why politics should matter to you?
Today (June 21, 2023), we’re all being told that inflation has remained high despite promises from the rich old folk in suits that it would plummet down to more manageable levels.
The reason for this is being touted as high food prices, according to mainstream news outlets like the BBC (UK inflation shock as food costs keep cost of living high) – but this isn’t true. The real reasons are corporate greed and Brexit.
(I know it doesn’t help that the mainstream media keep misleading you. Their job is to distract you away from what’s really happening, of course.)
So the utility firms (energy and water) and the supermarkets are fleecing you by charging whatever they want for goods that they’re actually buying far more cheaply, and this is offsetting the increased costs of importing goods that was caused by Brexit (and the war in Ukraine, although that is a secondary issue now).
The response from the government and the Bank of England is to make everything even more expensive by increasing the cost of money. If you don’t understand how they do this, it’s by raising interest rates on borrowing.
Businesses borrow habitually – for investment, or to finance temporary deficits during hard times, or (as we have learned about the privatised water firms recently) because they are diverting all the money they make into dividends for their shareholders and top executives.
Raising interest rates means the amount they will have to pay back to their lender of choice increases, meaning they have less spending money. Normally this creates a knock-on effect in which they stop buying the goods they need (because they can’t afford them), forcing the suppliers to reduce their prices in order to make sales. As inflation is all about price rises, this means inflation falls.
But that’s not happening at the moment because businesses are simply factoring the interest rate hikes into their pricing structures – they’re passing those rises on to you, the customer.
The result is that prices continue to rise, so inflation remains high.
The economist Richard Murphy explains what has happened in a useful Twitter thread. First, he tells us that the reasons we are being given for inflation are not true:
That pushed prices for some goods and services up for a while. Cars were impacted heavily. So was the cost of new kitchens and building work in general. That situation is, however, now long gone.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 21, 2023
But, again, and quite remarkably, most of that inflation has now gone. Wholesale food and shipping prices have now returned to pre-war levels. Gas and petrol prices have fallen drastically from their peak. The underlying causes of price war-based rises have now gone.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 21, 2023
So inflation is not being caused by influences outside the control of the UK’s politicians and businesspeople. Mr Murphy continues:
Second, there is profiteering. Banks, oil companies and many companies in food supply chains are very clearly increasing their absolute levels of profit, and their profit rates. This is not true for all companies, but it is for many.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 21, 2023
Trade unionist Howard Beckett agrees with this, and adds to it usefully:
Wages don’t cause inflation, profiteering does.
Your gas bill didn’t double this year because they paid gas workers double wages.
Your gas bills doubled this year because gas corps pocketed double profits.
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) June 21, 2023
They’re allowed to do this because our politicians let them. The government could cap prices, but doesn’t want to. Is it because our MPs and their political parties are receiving weighty donations from the businesspeople?
Here’s Mr Murphy again:
The Bank of England pushes up the interest rate in an attempt to reduce the demand for goods and services. Its logic is that if borrowers pay more in interest cost they will have less to spend. That means demand in the economy should fall, and so, it thinks, should prices.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 21, 2023
So he agrees with This Writer (or more accurately, I agree with him – he’s the expert).
If you’re asking how this has anything to do with you, here comes the bombshell:
This belief is based on theories on the cause of inflation developed in the 1970s. It was presumed then that inflation was caused by wages rising faster than prices. The excess spending power that this created then dragged prices in its wake, resulting in inflation.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 21, 2023
But…
So, again excepting the wealthy and high earners, pay in this country has not and as a matter of fact could not have driven inflation, and nor can it do so for a long time to come because most wage earners have neither the income or savings to force prices up.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) June 21, 2023
The bottom line is that not only have you been deprived of the cash to buy the things that make life worth living (due to cuts that mean your pay is at 2005 – or even 2000 – levels while prices have surged) but you are also now expected to cover the increased prices demanded by the profiteers and the interest rate-setting banks from what is left.
Those are political choices.
Politicians whose own salaries (plus the afore-mentioned corporate donations) mean they aren’t affected by these decisions have used high inflation to take your money away from you.
The reason is simple:
They don’t want you to have any money.
Money provides security, and the lack of it means the lack of security. And an insecure person is controllable; you’ll do whatever you think you must, in order to survive. Right?
The ultimate aim – as This Site and others warned more than 10 years ago – is to put you in a permanent cycle of debt. This provides the fatcats with a population who will work like dogs for peanuts while they reap massive profits. Happy days – for them. Misery for you.
The only way to prevent this is to get rid of the people who are inflicting it on you – and that means using your vote to shift the rot out of Parliament.
Ah, but you don’t vote, do you? You can’t be bothered with politics because it doesn’t affect you.
Take a look in your wallet. Take a look at your bank account. Do you have as much in either as you did last year?
No?
Then politics does affect you. It doesn’t matter if you’re not interested in them; the oldies in the suits are definitely interested in you.
How badly are you going to let them mess up your life before you actually do something about it?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Ageism is not the reason for inflation. The rich are all ages, mostly men in suits.
Nobody’s saying ageism is the reason for inflation. But if you can find me a young person who is inflicting it on the rest of us, let me know.