Former Citibank economist Gary Stevenson has become a recent social media sensation. His YouTube channel, Gary’s Economics, stands at 1.34 million subscribers, and his book The Trading Game has become a bestseller.
By Connor Rosoman
It is no coincidence that his straight-talking criticism of the massive inequality in Britain strikes a chord in the current period. We face a cost of living crisis, wage stagnation, rising bills and rent – all while a tiny layer of billionaires increasingly dominate society.
It is also an important counter to the billionaire-backed politicians who scapegoat migrants and the oppressed for the crises we see today. The huge popularity of Gary’s call to tax wealth not work points toward the support that could be mobilised by a political force fighting for even basic pro-worker ideas.
Gary’s limitations
However, there are limits to the approach of treating the question of taxing the rich as a simple policy choice. In many videos, he asks “why are we not taxing the rich more?” But the concentration of wealth at the top is not just about bad policies – it is an inherent part of this capitalist system.
Gary Stevenson is himself a member of the ‘Patriotic Millionaires’ group of business figures lobbying the government for higher taxes on the rich. He is not starting from the position of fighting against the system – instead, his ideas are based on patching it up. Unfortunately, this means his critiques stop halfway.
For example, in a recent video, he asks “if the problem is a lack of productivity, why is the wealth of the richest people in the country exploding through the ceiling?” Of course, both things can be true at once. For decades, debt and stock market speculation have been used to continue fuelling growth and profits for the ruling class. This is because for the rich, these are safer, more profitable investments than things like infrastructure, public services and above-inflation pay rises.
The result is both rising inequality and shrinking productivity. The capitalists are indeed raking in record profits, while water pipes and school buildings literally fall apart and public services are stretched to breaking point. In fact, the roots of the whole crisis of British capitalism lie in the increasingly parasitic and unproductive role of big business in society.
While Gary rightly calls out the fact that, for capitalists today, it’s more profitable to invest in things like buying up housing than it is to fund services for ordinary people, his solution is simply to put more money in the pockets of ordinary people by taxing the rich. The idea being that if people have more money, capitalists can finally guarantee a return on investments in services, education etc.
Socialist change needed
Of course, socialists support the call to tax the rich to fund a pay rise for workers. We would also add that this should fund welfare not warfare, healthcare, and massive spending on green infrastructure. But the capitalists already refuse to invest in such inherently ‘unprofitable’ projects, and fight tooth and nail to hold down our wages in order to maximise their ever-growing profits.
We clearly have to go further. We also need to nationalise the building, transport and arms companies, as well as the banks and other massive corporations, under workers’ control and management in order to plan investment into the things we need.
This parasitic role of big business is also what’s currently driving the ramping up of imperialist conflict internationally. As capitalism continues to grow, it looks to expand beyond national borders, competing to carve up the world for profit. Merely taxing the rich won’t solve this – the whole system is rotten to its core.
Gary’s Economics has got many people talking about economics and the class divide in society. This is very positive. But pinning our hopes on the minority of millionaires appealing for higher taxes on their wealth won’t save us.
To see an end to inequality, war and environmental destruction, we need to get organised as part of an independent and international working-class movement to confront the bosses, armed with a programme for socialist revolution.
