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Friday, August 15, 2025
HomeNational NewsChris Williamson Responds To Gary Stevenson

Chris Williamson Responds To Gary Stevenson

‘I like you @garyseconomics but you are reinforcing the myth that we’re reliant on wealthy elites to pay taxes so we can afford to pay for public services and improved infrastructure, etc. But that simply isn’t true.

So, here are some basic facts. The govt issues the currency, so it has access to all the money it needs to pay for a good society. The only constraint on government spending is the availability of real resources in the economy, such as workers, materials and equipment etc.

So, it’s simply a political choice to leave millions in poverty in the world’s sixth biggest economy.

Taxes are necessary predominantly to control inflation. They also generate a value for the currency because taxes have to be paid in pound sterling. They can also be used to deter or encourage consumer spending on certain items, like taxes on cigarettes and tax breaks on electric cars, etc. And they can and should be used to address the economic inequality that you are referring to, Gary.

But you are reinforcing the same myth that’s peddled by the media, the political class and many economists as well. I can’t make up my mind as to whether they’re deliberately or ignorantly misleading the public about how the monetary system operates.

And when they’re not peddling myths about taxes, they’re talking about the deficit, i.e., the difference between government spending and tax revenues, which they say necessitates so-called government borrowing.

But the govt doesn’t borrow money; it sells interest-bearing government bonds to wealthy elites and corporations. It’s really a form of corporate welfare. Instead of offering risk-free investments to the super rich, the govt could invest directly in the economy to repair our dilapidated infrastructure, bring the useless profiteering utilities back into public ownership and improve our increasingly inferior public services.

The truth is wealthy elites are surplus to requirements. We don’t need their taxes to help pay for public services like the NHS. In fact, if all the billionaires left, it would actually be a positive benefit to the country.

So, the reason we need a wealth tax is to address the grotesque level of wealth inequality in Britain and to limit the power that enormous wealth gives to these super-rich oligarchs who use it to buy political favours.

Around 100 years ago the American industrialist Henry Ford said that if people understood how the banking and the monetary system actually operated, there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

Gary should be using his significant platform to foment that revolution instead of encouraging people to think that we’re beholden to super-rich oligarchs.’

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