When politicians says ‘working people’ they use a convenient shorthand to describe people who aren’t blank, anonymous, distant others - the imagined rich
Superb article. A corollary observed when I used to be in the same room as Auntie was her mortgage gabble, or her interest rate selectivity: savers were never mentioned in my hearing.
Remember an article about "why it's hard to raise taxes on unearned income". The author's most interesting take? "The Petite Aristocrat Problem". Basically, most aristocrats weren't rich, but they didn't have to do physical labor for their often peasant-level (but often untaxeuntaxed) incomes. Substitute "retirees" for aristocrats he concluded, and that's why it was so hard to raise investment income taxes.
Excellent article Simon. I have just bought 'The Living Dead - The Shocking Truth about Office Life ' by David Bolchover. It was recommended by Andrew Orlowski at the Battle of Ideas and describes the extent of non-work that takes place in offices. I worked in a large corporation for many years and most middle management time was wasted keeping everyone 'in the loop' on email or in meetings or 'reporting' and 'planning'. 'Doing' was the process of simply being a manager. The growth industry, in its own right and within companies, are the consultations, measuring, auditing, performance indicating, setting targets on managing what already exists. Every small company that wants to work with a large organisation, private or public, has to be assessed and often certified in a range of factors that are irrelevant to do what they do - from 'environmental audits' that measure CO2 to demonstrating that your supply chain doesn't employ slaves. This is not work, it is in non-work. Perhaps this non-work should be taxed out of existence?
Superb article. A corollary observed when I used to be in the same room as Auntie was her mortgage gabble, or her interest rate selectivity: savers were never mentioned in my hearing.
Remember an article about "why it's hard to raise taxes on unearned income". The author's most interesting take? "The Petite Aristocrat Problem". Basically, most aristocrats weren't rich, but they didn't have to do physical labor for their often peasant-level (but often untaxeuntaxed) incomes. Substitute "retirees" for aristocrats he concluded, and that's why it was so hard to raise investment income taxes.
Excellent article Simon. I have just bought 'The Living Dead - The Shocking Truth about Office Life ' by David Bolchover. It was recommended by Andrew Orlowski at the Battle of Ideas and describes the extent of non-work that takes place in offices. I worked in a large corporation for many years and most middle management time was wasted keeping everyone 'in the loop' on email or in meetings or 'reporting' and 'planning'. 'Doing' was the process of simply being a manager. The growth industry, in its own right and within companies, are the consultations, measuring, auditing, performance indicating, setting targets on managing what already exists. Every small company that wants to work with a large organisation, private or public, has to be assessed and often certified in a range of factors that are irrelevant to do what they do - from 'environmental audits' that measure CO2 to demonstrating that your supply chain doesn't employ slaves. This is not work, it is in non-work. Perhaps this non-work should be taxed out of existence?
We were just talking about this problem as a big reason for zero productivity improvement, especially in the public sector.