Cost of living crisis
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The headline is a nice publicity for Centrica but it seems to be a policy of spreading the windfall profits over a number of years rather than reaping them all this year. As the article says:
“However, the Resolution Foundation has warned that the policy risked “delaying but locking in” windfall gains. There are concerns that the government negotiating team, led by the former head of the vaccines taskforce, Madelaine McTernan, is in a weak position as it will need to convince generators to forgo high short-term prices.“
But of course this is a problem for the capitalist class not us.
“But of course this is a problem for the capitalist class not us.”
It’s very much a problem for ‘us’ too if our bills keep rising but our incomes don’t keep up with them.
It’s how profits are divided amongst the capitalist class that’s not our problem.
Of course the rise in the cost of the gas and electricity is a problem for us as it reduces our standard of living.
You still haven’t said what your “permanent” solution to this problem is beyond a vague reference to a “fair price for power”.
Hope you are not suggesting that we should take sides in the capitalist dispute over who should pay for the subsidised price from 1 October.
“You still haven’t said what your “permanent” solution to this problem is beyond a vague reference to a “fair price for power”.”
I don’t profess to have a “permanent” solution to this or any other problem of capitalism and neither do you “beyond a vague reference” to some dream world which is not going to be realised in our lifetime, if ever.
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“I don’t profess to have a “permanent” solution to this or any other problem of capitalism and neither do you”
The Socialist Party have never proposed a solution to the problems of capitalism, because they don’t exist.
Our planet and it’s people are on the edge of obliteration through pollution, global warming, nuclear war, not to mention international and civil way, a global food and energy crisis and ongoing poverty, whilst the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, yet you believe that it’s worthwhile to come up with a put forward but futile adjustments to the condition of things.
Socialism is based on a underpinning knowledge of the nature of capitalistic society, a practical analysis of the reasons why we are on the edge of obliteration and reasonable and well argued solutions to crisis we face. If you don’t want to face up to the hard miles that are needed to help the working class break free from their ideological blinkers, that’s your choice. But to impugn those of us who are working hard to take on that difficult task makes you complicit in the crisis that we face.
The “cost of living crisis” you speak about is actually a “likelihood of existence crisis”. If we don’t (you included) start acting to change the economic system that has produced the crisis, then we may as well kiss our lives and our children and our children’s children’s lives away.
The fact that you have engaged with us and have considered some of the arguments we have put forward, indicates that you have an interest in being part of the solution. We need active and considered people like you to join us in the struggle, why not be part of that work, rather than criticise us?
Apologies. I mistakenly assumed that you were an activist in Don’t Pay and went along with their view that the permanent solution is “a fair price for power”. I can now see that, in rejecting the idea of a permanent solution under capitalism, you are ahead of them.
I am not so sure, though, that, in arguing that socialism is a pipe dream and reformism is the only game in town, you are ahead of them on this.
The wording on their website suggests that they are against the profit system and so may well want to replace by some other system. It is true that the emphasis is on opposing “profiteering” rather than against profit-making but that might just be populist talk to gain the support of those just against the high cost of their gas and electricity.
They might have made a better case if they had said “don’t pay but don’t have any illusions about a ‘fair’ price; the only permanent solution is the end of the profit system and its replacement by a system of production directly for use based on the common ownership and democratic control of society’s productive resources.”
Always good for a read. Yaris Varoufakis on the energy crisis.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/09/13/europes-energy-system-scam-against-its-own-people
“If you really want an indication of what the matter is besides the fact that prices are going up, that there’s a war in Ukraine, supply chains have been interrupted… look at the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is a very good case in point because it is self sufficient.
“More than 50% of Britain’s electricity needs are covered by wind power… producing electricity at zero marginal cost—just the cost of maintaining the windmills and nuclear. As for the gas reliance, which is around 35% of British electricity, UK electricity is produced using natural gas. All of it comes from the North Sea, more or less.
“So in other words, the UK doesn’t need Russian gas, doesn’t need Texan LNG, it doesn’t need to import anything. And yet you’ll see that the new Thatcher look-alike, prime minister Liz Truss, is promising to do something to cap the cost of electricity. Now, why is the cost of electricity in the UK rising as fast as it is rising here in Greece where we have no natural gas that we produce or Italy for that matter?
“The reason is Thatcher—because Thatcher privatised the electricity system in the UK and introduced the idea that privatisation is a good thing for the people—not for the oligarchs, but for the people, the idea being that the market knows better how to reduce costs than the state—state bureaucracies, state owned and run electricity grids and power stations are stuck at high costs…”
National Day of Action – October 1st
Nationwide actions and demonstrations
Yes, Varouflakis makes a valid point. As there is only one electricity grid and only one gas grid (and we could add, only one railway network) creating a market to supply gas and electricity on which different private enterprise compete doesn’t make sense even from a capitalist point of view. That of course is why they were nationalised in the first place and run as a single state-capitalist concern (electricity by a Tory government in 1925).
Apart from that, there are some ideas in what he says that Don’t Pay might find useful in their quest for a “fair price for power”.
The government has announced a £15 billion package of support for rising energy bills, worth up to £550 each for around 28 million households.
This of course is not new but was announced by the previous Chancellor in May and will already have been paid to nearly all of those eligible.
It was partly financed by a windfall tax on the profits of some energy companies. In other words, it was partly paid for by that section of the capitalist class, as opposed to being borne by the capitalist class as a whole out of general taxation or borrowing.
https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/26/sunak-announces-windfall-tax-energy-firms
Who should pay for further support measures was a big issue in the Tory leadership race with Truss making it clear that it should not be by the energy companies. It will be interesting — and perhaps revealing — to see, when the expenses for the campaign are published, exactly who financed hers.
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