Baby Bonds in UK

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sat Apr 28 11:31:43 PDT 2001


At 28/04/01 09:06 -0700, you wrote:
>On Sat, 28 Apr 2001, Chris Burford wrote:
>
> > I certainly would not have proposed it myself, but I think it is
> ingenious,
> > and paradoxically provides new terrain that progressive people can
> fight on
> > to make the system of production socially responsible.
>
>Well, the Continental countries already have pretty extensive programs of
>child-funds, where households get a cash payment every month for each
>child.

I think the point is that this is different. It is capital, which cannot be spent in any shape or form till the age of 18, but will entitle the owner to clip dividends or interest until that time. Ludicrously small by comparison with the total mass of capital, but it would make every citizen a participant in the feast (and the limitations) of capitalism.


>a bunch of
>small individual holdings doesn't challenge the power of capital to do
>whatever it wants. It might have some limited applications in the case of
>a powerful developmental state, backed by class-conscious pension boards
>elected by workers, but we can't all be lucky enough to live in
>Scandinavia.

Absolutely: it does not frontally challenge capitalism. Initially it appears to suggest that everyone is a participant in the benefits of capitalism.

But interestingly in the UK, the first reaction of the Conservative Party, which one poll recently put 20% behind Labour just ahead of the forthcoming general election, was to belittle this proposal and say the money should be given directly. This from the party which under Thatcher tried to promote the share holding democracy.

It is in the interests of the Conservative Party that the perks of capitalism go to about two thirds of the working people in the country, who can therefore be appealed to vote Conservative.

Quite honestly I suspect that this move at the moment by Labour is more to wrong foot the Conservatives, and because someone in the government has read the book Max cited. But it just could be part of a longer term strategy to cap the Conservatives' appeal strategically. After all New Labour wants to appeal to the middle ground without totally losing its idealist left wing.

If it got every citizen a capitalist, it could put more teeth into the Financial Services Agency, which Brown set up.

While citizens of the USA are unlikely to be living in the equivalent of Scandinavia within the next decade, it is not impossible that social democracy could move Britain further in that direction.

Chris Burford

London



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