Ha-Joon Chang (2015) “What does it really mean to be ‘pro-business’?“, The Guardian, 03 Μαρτίου.
Despite the best efforts of some of its members to discredit it with market rigging, tax avoidance, and unjustified bonuses, the business community is still held in awe in Britain. Any suggestion of higher taxes for top earners or tougher regulations on the abuse of market power is howled down as dangerously anti-business. Politicians who are serious about the nation’s prosperity and its citizens’ welfare, it is accepted, need to be “pro-business”.
But what does it mean to be pro-business? First, we should not confuse a pro-business stance with a pro-rich stance. Not all rich people are business people, or “wealth creators”, as they are often called these days. Some of them have simply inherited vast sums of money, while others have created wealth elsewhere and are simply enjoying their lives in the UK.
These people of course spend money and indirectly create jobs and income in that process. But job – and income – creation through consumption can be done by anyone, if they are given money. Indeed, you could argue that poorer people are more effective in this regard, as they tend to spend a higher share of their income, creating more demands for business. Thus transferring income from the “idle rich” to poorer sections of society through taxation may actually be a pro-business policy.
Σχετικές αναρτήσεις:
- European Commission (2014) “Tax reforms in EU Member States 2014 – Tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability – 2014 Report“, Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) and Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), European Economy 6/2014, Νοέμβριος.
- Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency, Comparing Business Regulations for Domestic Firms in 189 Economies, A World Bank Group Flagship Report, 29 Οκτωβρίου.
- Benassy-Quéré, A. & Wolff, G. (2014) “Tax harmonisation in Europe: Moving forward“, VoxEU Organisation, 22 Ιουλίου.