RobertWootton
commented
6 years ago In the UK we live in a democracy that is based on an electoral system of "First Past The Post" (FPTP). This could be good thing if a political party won a landslide victory on a manifesto pledge of eliminating poverty and homelessness in its first term. this could be done because the party would be an "elected dictatorship" and get through parliament the necessary measures to do this. The existing parties have a vested interest in keeping the existing system going because the system produces their "raison d'etre". The other manifesto pledge would be to introduce a proportional representation electoral system.
Policies that political parties publish in their manifestos and the policies that the government of the party in power decide to initiate take no account of the systemic causes of the social problems that face the country. Problems such as the collapse of the NHS, zero hour contracts, payday loan businesses, food banks, the lack of affordable homes are are ALL outputs of the economic system which in turn is based on the economic ideology propagated by the Centre for Policy Studies. Since the policies are based on punishments such as fines or making actions illegal. That is "the carrot and the stick" options of the current viewpoint of the establishment, including the Labour party and the Conservative party.
I take the view that "the system" itself is faulty. People "work the system" in the way that best serves their own purposes. Not because "the bosses" are inherently greedy or that "the workers and/or the unemployed" are lazy and need to be bullied into work.
So my perspective is to design an economic system that has as its output economic justice and eliminates poverty and homelessness and enhances mental health and well being which the current economic system does not do.