Baby Bonds in UK

[Chris Burford]

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