SO WHO EXACTLY ARE THESE 'WEALTH CREATORS'?
General Election day 2015 gets ever closer and the lies and rhetoric are being ramped up on all sides. Not least from the right wing, who are desperate to keep power and wealth and privilege in the grasp of those who already hold it and dread any attempts to create a fairer society. They seem unable to grasp the inherent evil of a system where, in the sixth wealthiest economy on the planet, children are born into poverty and people have to resort to begging or foodbanks simply to stay alive.
On the right much is made of the need to reduce the national debt, to 'pay our way' in the world, to shrink the welfare state which radically changed Britain for the better after the Second World War. Without any recognition that the greed and perverted money worship which brought about the 2008 crisis is still with us. If they genuinely wanted us to 'pay our way' they'd be clamouring for all the unpaid legitimate tax to be collected and the perpetrators to be charged with theft. But supposed 'benefit scroungers' are much softer targets....
Instead we're supposed to be grateful to the so-called 'wealth creators', despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary. So maybe it's time to dispel a few myths, for the blood suckers who refuse to pay their way (in a tax system which, even were it to be enforced, still asks for nothing like the payments which these people should be making if they were really wanting to contribute to society) to be revealed for what they are.
Because too often the wealth being created is all going one way, into the pockets of the employers and board members, with an inadequate share being 'handed down' (sic) to the workers in their businesses and the public purse to which they owe so much. Because nobody creates a business on their own, it's something we ALL help with, and therefore deserve to share in the success of.
So to anyone who claims they did it all by themselves let me pose a few questions.
Did you ever receive any publicly funded education? Pretty hard not to, because even private schools are heavily funded by the taxpayer. So you owe us.
Were you born in the NHS? Ever receive any free treatment? You owe us.
Have any of your colleagues or employees received a publicly funded education or had NHS care? You owe us.
Do you and your business ever use public funded and maintained roads? For commuting, or delivery of raw materials, or product distribution? You owe us.
Do you heat and light your business premises? You might pay your bill to a private company, but they could do nothing without the underlying national infrastructure which the government regulates and ensures compliance with standards and compatibility. Even if you bring in oil to met all your fuel requirements it would have to be delivered via public roads, so you still owe us.
If there's an accident or emergency at your business would you not call 999? Or does your non-reliance on the taxpayer mean that if I come to your place and set it alight or steal all your stock then you wouldn't want to burden the taxpayer funded emergency services? Do let me know....
And, finally, how did you learn to do what you did to build up this business? Could you have done it without being literate or numerate? Could you have done it without having a reservoir of knowledge and skills you acquired in childhood? Could you have done it without your colleagues and employees and suppliers and even your customers being literate and numerate and knowledgeable? Because it's the acquisition of those skills and abilities that are the key to a functioning society, to an intelligent workforce, to discriminating consumers, to well run public services and, yes, to creating the circumstances which allow people to create successful businesses.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the true 'wealth creators' in our society - teachers, and all forms of educators. And look forward to a day when they are properly recognised as such and given the status they deserve.
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