Introduction

The capitalist economy has gone through another shock, and the potential for another, larger one is on the horizon. While it’s seemingly in its death throes, capitalism continues to fuel growth. Under such a system we have seen a vast improvement in general living standards across the globe, despite rigged markets and the omnipresent power of the state. However, who is this growth for? While absolute poverty has been rolled back, and in many Western nations completely eliminated, we still see a large, indebted underclass, a Global South regularly sold out to the interests of capital and a system of vast wealth that only seems accessible to a privileged few. Continue reading →

In this paper I look at the effects of the UK’s national minimum wage on non-university educated 18-21 year olds. I find that the effects are generally negative, with a significant disemployment effect amongst the young and unskilled, whereby general levels of youth unemployment have consistently increased since the minimum wage has been increased above particular productivity levels. There are also major underemployment and training-deficit effects, where hours are usually cut irrelevant of the wider economic picture and there are forms of labour-labour substitution which favour trained, older workers over those entering the labour market. Fundamentally, the minimum wage does not help non-university educated 18-21 year olds in gaining skills, entering the labour market or finding long-term employment. Further, it entangles labour markets, negating their functioning as mechanisms that create employment dynamics. In this respect, I recommend reforms which decentralise the minimum wage toward smaller politico-economic units, allowing for disaggregated knowledge to inform decisions on the minimum wage’s effects. Continue reading →

Within the free banking literature, there is a large contingent that suggests fiat money is completely illegitimate, and that only commodity money is seen as genuinely freeing the banking system from the will of government. However, nearly every historical banking system has relied on a commodity standard, with government backing maintaining bullion reserves through resource extraction from colonial interests. If we look to the conquests of the Conquistadors in the Inca Empire, we see the desire for wealth in the form of gold as a major impetus for expanding and exploring. Continue reading →

Like many “libertarians”, I regularly spouted the idea of NHS privatisation. I assumed that it was a bygone statist organisation that should’ve been privatised like the rest of them were under Thatcher. I instantaneously assumed that the inefficiencies present in the current system would be cured by privatisation, like the wave of a magic wand. Now, I’m not so sure. The dichotomy I perceived, of private versus government ownership, is a completely false one that is usually taken up by what Carson calls vulgar libertarians. Unfortunately I was guilty of the same vulgarity. Continue reading →

The commodification process is inherent in valueless transactions. By valueless, I mean that which corresponds to no inherent human need or want and is instead that of a particular class or vested interest. Polanyi identified three such valueless commodities: land, labour and money. All of these things have become the play thing of those in power i.e. government and its corresponding regulatory and corporate power. Continue reading →

Within the UK land is controlled in the strangest of ways. Planning laws constrain building projects and artificially inflate the price of land. Through this de-facto government control, land is then made available to the most wealthy of companies and speculators, who do one of two things. Either they land bank, assuming inflationary increases well above general affordability. The creation of a series of corporate landowners akin to the aristocracy of old develops. The second is to develop the land for expensive housing or useless infrastructure projects, usually with subsidisation from local or national government. This leads to landlordism, as the houses are bought by potential landlords to rent out at high rates. This all leads back to speculation and land centralisation which creates artificially high prices, restricting the movement of people into a certain area and blocking small business and local infrastructure development. Continue reading →

The labour market as it stands is awash with exploitation. Low-skilled workers are treated as temporary labour to be used at a whim, with no ability for such workers to organise and demand job security and a wage relative to their circumstances. There are two main reasons for this. The first are wage and employment laws which lock low-skill workers into low-paid jobs. These laws create a wage ceiling which many corporate employers exploit as a means of paying the minimum and providing minimal hours. Second are the anti-trade union laws put in place by Thatcher that have allowed for a hegemony of modern corporate unions that talk the rhetoric of workers’ rights but frankly aren’t up to it. Continue reading →

Both capitalism and socialism are systems of control, controlled by powerful elites who rely on expropriation and corrupt political power. To be a libertarian, I can’t seriously support either system as they are reliant on centralising structures. In the case of capitalism, it is a liquid state controlled by large bureaucracies and multinational corporations that use rigged markets to peddle oppression and provide minimal choice, making individuals into mindless consumers. With socialism, there are also large bureaucracies. However the state doesn’t pretend to be minimal, taking control of the means of production and creating a political class of yes-men and busybodies. Continue reading →

With the Chancellor’s announcement that he intends to raise the minimum wage to £7.20 soon and by 2020 raise it to £9.00, creating what he terms a “national living wage”, which will be fully enforced irrelevant of business size, employee numbers or company turnover, it seems that the Chancellor has moved completely away from any economic rationality and straight into the world vote-buying and political pandering. Of course the kind of political nonsense that is the living wage could be funny if it wasn’t so serious. Continue reading →