We have to solve the real problems

The real problem is that we are not running a working system.

• Not economically or financially.
• Not socially.
• Not environmentally.

Economically we are not balancing our books, and using debt to plug the gap. And we are paying millions of people to do nothing, in a society were simply existing is expensive, financially and environmentally.

Socially we are not nurturing the cohesion, understanding and specialist skills we need.

Environmentally we are not moving off fossil fuels fast enough.

We are still in the process of figuring out how to make it all work. How to provide a decent standard of life, how to do that in line with a working economic system, and have that system provide enough room to invest in future infrastructure that is sustainable.
We, obviously, have not figured out the big stuff yet.

Collecting taxes to pay for social security and fund national infrastructure looked like the solution. But that was back in the beginning of the 20th C when resources were cheap and demographics were in a special state. Now resources are expensive and we are arriving at a natural demographic balance.
Taxes alone will not generate sufficient revenues to pay for our society and the investments we need to make. This has been true for 50 years. We need to face his fact.

• GDP growth is not the answer because we still have an old economy based on fossil fuels, and an old structure that suppresses sustainable micro-economic activity.
• Increasing wages is not an answer either. It does not address any of the major problems, it is not practical, and it assumes there is enough wealth to pay for all our needs. But as we have already said, we have higher social needs (with progressive demographics) than our economy can afford to generate taxes to pay for.
• Increasing taxes will not do it either. We are already close the maximum tax rate an economy can withstand before it starts contracting. Some increase is possible, but it’s not enough to bridge the gap between our needs and our resources.

How do you meet expanded social needs at the same time as investing in the future, when you’re not generating enough taxes already?

You revert the social contract to its natural state.
The social contract over the long arc of human history has always been to guarantee a basic, decent life to all members of the group. We need to revive that contract. The social contract is not about money, it’s about a decent LIFE. The social contract is a guarantee of services, not cash. A guarantee of shelter, sustenance and access to basic services such as transport, health care and education.

Reverting to the natural social contract has a transformative effect on our finances. It reduces the cost of life, and it makes investment more affordable. It does this because it costs us less, as a society, to deliver basic life services than it does for each individual to buy the same services on their own. Every £1 it costs us to deliver basic services is worth 3 or 4 times as much to the recipient. So we trade pay for services, which reduces the cost of the services, which in turn means that we have to raise less taxes to pay for the same amount of service.

A natural social contract delivers better services, to more people, at lower cost. It brings our finances into balance, using a reasonable tax to fund affordable services. And it makes investment cheaper by lowering the cost of basic labour. Finally, and most importantly, it changes the relationship to work, from one of coercion for survival, to one of voluntary contribution for reward.

All this requires surprising little change and upheaval. We simply need to spend 3 years rolling out local community services for free food, local transport, Internet and basic phone services. These compliment the existing free healthcare, education and shelter services that we already provide. The rest of the benefits flow naturally without legislation. Wages fall of their own accord, micro-businesses start on their own, and the benefits of efficient resource use accrue naturally.

Making these changes is what LIFE is all about. We are about facing the big and real problems, and delivering solutions that will take us through a period of change as gently and peacefully as possible.