"I’m unpersuaded because if we are talking about poverty, which Jack Monroe is - poverty as defined by the urgent search for the cheapest can of baked beans - then we should talk about poverty. And, no, that is not a transitory problem. But price controls on basics are not generally a good way of addressing poverty, except in emergencies…
"I’m unpersuaded because if we are talking about poverty, which Jack Monroe is - poverty as defined by the urgent search for the cheapest can of baked beans - then we should talk about poverty. And, no, that is not a transitory problem. But price controls on basics are not generally a good way of addressing poverty, except in emergencies where the apparatus of regulation is already in place (e.g. in current energy market shambles). "
I view this as pretty much the same move as talking about the distributional effects of monetary policy but from a different angle. in principle i would subscribe to the "one fix at a time an specifically tailored to the problem"-principle but i think we see that political economy does not work this way and ignoring these distributional effects without cedible commitment to fixing the other problems which are ignored leads to not solving them at all.
"More generally the embrace of the discourse of the “cost of living crisis”, rather than alternative formulations like “the crisis of low pay”, or the “crisis of inadequate state benefits”, seems dangerous. It plays into the hands of inflation hawks. Tender concern for the cost of living of the struggling pensioner has long been a staple of conservative anti-inflation rhetoric. "
I think at the moment this talk does seems more plausible as most workers see the payment side of their balance sheet as fixed and feel the only mutable side is inflation. No realization that battling inflation implies slower growth with bad knock-on effects arguably worse than the current situation. On the one hand it speaks to not thinking in counterfactuals and marginal analysis (who would blame people for that?), but more importantly to the lost hope through the marginalization of unions / a real labour movement. Most just do not think it possible to get more income because of inflation, as this has not been lived experience in their lifetime.
"I’m unpersuaded because if we are talking about poverty, which Jack Monroe is - poverty as defined by the urgent search for the cheapest can of baked beans - then we should talk about poverty. And, no, that is not a transitory problem. But price controls on basics are not generally a good way of addressing poverty, except in emergencies where the apparatus of regulation is already in place (e.g. in current energy market shambles). "
I view this as pretty much the same move as talking about the distributional effects of monetary policy but from a different angle. in principle i would subscribe to the "one fix at a time an specifically tailored to the problem"-principle but i think we see that political economy does not work this way and ignoring these distributional effects without cedible commitment to fixing the other problems which are ignored leads to not solving them at all.
"More generally the embrace of the discourse of the “cost of living crisis”, rather than alternative formulations like “the crisis of low pay”, or the “crisis of inadequate state benefits”, seems dangerous. It plays into the hands of inflation hawks. Tender concern for the cost of living of the struggling pensioner has long been a staple of conservative anti-inflation rhetoric. "
I think at the moment this talk does seems more plausible as most workers see the payment side of their balance sheet as fixed and feel the only mutable side is inflation. No realization that battling inflation implies slower growth with bad knock-on effects arguably worse than the current situation. On the one hand it speaks to not thinking in counterfactuals and marginal analysis (who would blame people for that?), but more importantly to the lost hope through the marginalization of unions / a real labour movement. Most just do not think it possible to get more income because of inflation, as this has not been lived experience in their lifetime.