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   ShredderLivesOn (shredderliveson@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 06:43:49 JST ShredderLivesOn

   The legacy of Thatcher's free market can do no wrong ideology.

   Don't get mad at the millionaire who wants to run the tax system dodging £600,000 in tax.

   Be mad at all those people on benefits. Especially if they manage to get an extra £20 a fortnight.
   They're the real drain on our economy.

   It makes a refreshing change to see a publication like the London Economic calling for Richard Tice's resignation.

   Although Tice could probably serve as an example for tax reform.

   https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/tice-must-go-404043/

   • Kermode repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 06:43:46 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @ShredderLivesOn

     IMO, 'tweaking' the system will never work.
     Capitalism was only introduced a few hundred years ago and it needs to be abolished: remove the granting of personhood to a piece of legal fiction with no morals and only greed as a motive for 'existence'! It's straightforward!
     We were doing business just fine before that moment in history. People may still combine their funds for larger enterprises.
     Maybe our resident economics and politics prof
     Having unaccountable greed enshrined in the law is ludicrous and proven to be harmful.
     @ChrisMayLA6 knows why this tragic, historical error can't be undone?
     @peterbrown

   • Embed this notice
     ShredderLivesOn (shredderliveson@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 06:43:47 JST ShredderLivesOn

     in reply to

     It's all well and good for example being angry at someone like James Watt, taking £100m out of Brewdog, fucking over investors, and putting 450 people out of work with the taxpayer picking up the tab for redundancy pay.

     But why are we doing nothing to fix a system that allows privatising gains, but then socialising all losses?

     This should have been priority one for a traditional Labour chancellor.
     But what was it we got? 2 child benefit cap to remain, and winter fuel allowance removed.

   • Embed this notice
     ShredderLivesOn (shredderliveson@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 06:43:48 JST ShredderLivesOn

     in reply to

     Too many like Tice have screwed over HMRC, and avoided tax. And we keep hearing that if we properly tax millionaires, they'll take their money elsewhere.

     The simple solution, is tax their assets. They can't relocate property like they can money. And if someone is provably hiding their money offshore, then you hit their assets hard.

     But we also really need business regulation reform as well.

   • Embed this notice
     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 07:30:18 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @ChrisMayLA6
     or underestimated its time to collapse?

     @ShredderLivesOn @peterbrown

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     Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 07:30:20 JST Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Peter Brown

     @gemlog @ShredderLivesOn @peterbrown

     Hmmm.... even Marx thought capitalism was an extraordinary & unprecedented shift in the market system, which drove advance never seen before in previous systems - he just thought it would eventually collapse under its own contradictions before ceding the space to a different (socialist, communist) economy.... sadly he under-estimated capitalism's ability to thrive on contradiction.

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     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 07:37:56 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @peterbrown
     Or, sadly, think Sweden, which was the same, until the right wing woke up...

     "That is actually capitalism. "
     What I'm proposing is not.
     The distinguishing feature of capitalism is enshrining limitied liability in a fake personhood. That is what needs to go!

     @ShredderLivesOn @ChrisMayLA6

   • Embed this notice
     Peter Brown (peterbrown@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 07:37:58 JST Peter Brown

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @gemlog @ShredderLivesOn @ChrisMayLA6 “We were doing business just fine before that moment in history. People may still combine their funds for larger enterprises.”
     That is actually capitalism. But it needs to be controlled and regulated to work.

     Think Scandinavia. A strong capitalist economy with an equally strong social countries and comprehensive welfare state.

   • Embed this notice
     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 07:55:36 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @ChrisMayLA6

     Thank you sir.
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel?useskin=vector

     Basically, I'm just pilfering an education from you, one post at a time!
     🙂

     @ShredderLivesOn @peterbrown

   • Embed this notice
     Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Mar-2026 07:55:37 JST Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Peter Brown

     @gemlog @ShredderLivesOn @peterbrown

     Well, as a fan of Braudel, of course I'll sign up to the longue duree in political economy

   • Embed this notice
     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 02:37:48 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @peterbrown
     There must be some way to stop the amoral appetites of corporations. Clearly, I'm not clever enough.
     If one legal mechanism created the problem then modifying it or adding a new part should fix it no?
     Like how the GNU Public License enforces moral behaviour.

     @ShredderLivesOn @ChrisMayLA6

   • Embed this notice
     Peter Brown (peterbrown@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 02:37:49 JST Peter Brown

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @gemlog @ShredderLivesOn @ChrisMayLA6 limited liability is not just a feature of commerce. Most charities have limited liability, because it doesn’t seem fair to expose trustees to bankruptcy just to operate a charity.

     I suppose it would be feasible to remove the limited liability and cover it with insurance? Would that address your worries?

     Of course by doing that, you are creating increased dependency on private insurance companies!

   • Embed this notice
     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 03:26:24 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @ChrisMayLA6
     Thanks very much!
     @peterbrown @ShredderLivesOn

   • Embed this notice
     Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 03:26:25 JST Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Peter Brown

     @gemlog @peterbrown @ShredderLivesOn

     Have a look a B Corps - they have two bottom lines - one financial & one social (so they are obliged to measure success against both profit & some social measure decided by the board/shareholders) - as a reformist approach it can work quite well

   • Embed this notice
     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 03:39:23 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @ChrisMayLA6
     There's a fair amount of criticism on the wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_Corporation_(certification)?useskin=vector
     It's still a good idea, but it needs to be public regulation and not private. That's great.
     The page mentioned the European Commission, but I couldn't find anything using my meta search engine or their own built-in search. I did get one hit from yandex, but the page was 404 at the commission.
     @peterbrown @ShredderLivesOn

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     Kermode (gemlog@tilde.zone)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 12:30:58 JST Kermode

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @peterbrown
     Yes! I'm big on co-ops too. And credit unions vs our chartered banks.

     @ChrisMayLA6 @ShredderLivesOn

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     Peter Brown (peterbrown@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 12:30:59 JST Peter Brown

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     @ChrisMayLA6 @gemlog @ShredderLivesOn Some fairly dubious organisations seem to have achieved Bcorp status.
     Personally I am a fan of community enterprise. There are various trading models available from cooperatives to community benefit societies
     But what they all have in common is that they are free of the stock market. They can’t be bought or sold by millionaires to other millionaires.

   • Embed this notice
     Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us)'s status on Thursday, 19-Mar-2026 12:31:01 JST Emeritus Prof Christopher May

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Peter Brown

     @gemlog @peterbrown @ShredderLivesOn

     Yes, I'd agree, like fair trade & labour rights the privatised certification process is weak & reliant on good will... but having established the plausibility of the B Corp, moving to a formalised state-led regulation is a path other organisational innovations have traveled (over time)