Should the tax on robots be high or low?

Sir, John Thornhill writes that Carl Benedikt Frey’s “The Technology Trap” informs us that “the number of robots in the US increased by 50 per cent between 2008 and 2016, each of them replacing about 3.3 jobs” “The return of the Luddites” July 13, 2019.

Those who are so replaced must surely have been generating some non-wage labour costs, like social security, that robots don’t. Therefore I frequently pose a question that, with the exception of some Swedes, no one wants to give me a definite answer to. It is:

Should we tax robots low so they work for us humans, or high so that we humans remain competitive for the jobs?

In an Op-Ed from 2014 titled “We need decent and worthy unemployments” I wrote: “The power of a nation, and the productivity of its economy, which so far has depended primarily on the quality of its employees may, in the future, also depend on the quality of its unemployed, as a minimum in the sense of these not interrupting those working.”

And over the years I have become convinced that in a universal basic income, large enough to help us out of bed to reach up to what is available, and low enough to keep us from staying in bed, lies our best chances to find the basic social stability we need to avoid societal breakdown,.

The financing of that UBI could include that those who exploit data on us citizens shared with us part of their ad revenues, a high carbon tax, and perhaps taxing robots and AI (though I do not know with how much)

PS. I case you wonder why some Swedes answered the question that has primarily to do with the existence in Swedish of the magical word “lagom”, meaning something like not too much not too little but just right. J

https://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2017/02/here-some-disorderly-lose-cannon.html

@PerKurowski

Three questions for Angus Deaton, the chair of The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ wide-ranging review of inequalities in UK

Sir, I refer to Angus Deaton’s “Inequality in America offers lessons for Britain” May 15.

I have three questions for him:

Regulatory subsidized credit for the purchase of houses, which has helped morph houses from being homes into investment assets, how much increased inequality has that caused between those who own houses and those who do not?

The increased benefits for those who have jobs, how much increased inequality has that caused when compared to those without jobs?

The risk weighted capital requirements for banks, which very much favors the financing of the “safer” present over the riskier future, how much inequality is it producing between current and future generations?

PS. Decreed inequality

@PerKurowski

The “having just enough” opens the door for a discussion on relevant and irrelevant inequalities

Sir, I refer to Janan Ganesh’s “The holy grail of having just enough” April 6.

It is a great article, though because of its honest shadings, those who want to see all in black or white will criticize it. But its real importance could be in helping to put the finger on the need to redefine all discussions and measuring of inequality, by allowing these to focus much more on the relevant existing inequalities, and much less on the irrelevant inequalities.

That some “filthy rich” has decided to use his purchase power to buy a yacht, something which makes yacht builders happy, or to contract a yacht crew, something that gives those crew members a job, or freeze $450m of it in a painting, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which should make the one who sold him that painting very happy, does not make me feel one iota unequal to him. But, I can perfectly understand that the fact I own a house, a car and a reasonable amount of money, can make many owning much less feel unequal to me, and many who have nothing feel unequal to all.

And clearly those without a job must feel unequal to those with a job… and in that case unequal to the yacht crew, not unequal to the yacht owner.

In these days when redistribution and polarization profiteers seeding so much hate and envy, at zero marginal costs, create so much odious societal divisions, it behooves us to, as a minimum minimorum, make sure those divisions are in reference to something real and relevant, and not just fake divisions that can lead to absolutely nothing good.

PS. My generous feelings towards what the “filthy rich” own, are of course based on that they have obtained all that wealth in legal and decent ways.

If you finance “safe” consumption more than “risky” production, growth will come to a standstill.

John Dizard writes: “What if global income growth, or even national income growth, cannot cover the cost of servicing capital? Then the capital market machinery would have to shift into generating losses rather than returns.” “Bondholders face greater likelihood of haircuts as system goes into reverse” January 26.

Absolutely! When regulators decided that banks could hold less capital against the “safer” present than against the “riskier future”; meaning they could leverage more with the safer present than with the riskier future; meaning they would be able to earn higher expected risk adjusted returns on equity when financing the safer present than the riskier future, they ordained that to happen.

Basel II assigned a risk weight of 35% to residential mortgages, which on an 8% base capital signified a capital requirement of 2.8%, which signified an allowed leverage of 35.7 times.

Basel II assigned a risk weight of 100% to unrated entrepreneurs, which on an 8% base capital signified a capital requirement of 2.8%, which signified an allowed leverage of 12.5 times.

That allows banks to earn higher risk adjusted returns on equity financing residential mortgages than giving loans to entrepreneurs.

The consequence? Many will sit in their houses without the jobs needed to service the mortgages or pay the utilities.

@PerKurowski

There's a new class war brewing, that between employed and unemployed.

Sarah O’Connor, discussing the challenges of the Gig economy writes, “Offering employment benefits to drivers might well help to snap up the best workers and hang on to them. But if customers were not to shoulder the cost, investors would have to.”“Uber and Lyft’s valuations expose the gig economy to fresh scrutiny” January 2.

Sir, to that we must add that if the investors were neither willing to shoulder that cost, then the gig workers would have to do so, or risk losing their job opportunities.

That conundrum illustrates clearly the need for an unconditional universal basic income. Increasing minimum wages or offering other kind of benefits only raises the bar at which jobs can be created, while an UBI works like a step stool making it easier for anyone to reach up to whatever jobs are available.

Sarah O’Connor also mentions how a collective agreement was negotiated between a Danish gig economy company and a union. Great, but let us not forget that in the brewing class-war between employed and unemployed, the unions only represent the employed… and we do need decent and worthy unemployments too, before social order breaks down.

PS. There's another not yet sufficiently recognized neo-class-war too. That between those who have houses as investment assets and those who want houses as homes.

@PerKurowski

What has most made houses unaffordable for many is having made these artificially affordable for many.

Sir, John Dizard quotes and comments Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders with: “Affordability is at a 10-year low.” It is not just the tariff-driven double-digit rise in the cost of wood. “We have suffered labour shortages for the past [few]years. Now the builders say that [land approved for building] is low.” “Bad news for housebuilding recovery as America loses its free lunch from world”, October 13.

That might bear some influence bit let us be very clear, what has most made houses unaffordable for many has been all that preferential financing to make house purchases affordable to many, which turned homes into investment assets and increased the prices of houses and the wealth of those who own houses.

For example, should banks have to hold the same capital against “safe” residential mortgages that they need to hold against loans to “risky” entrepreneurs house prices would be much lower...(PS. But there surely would be more jobs to help allow the purchase of houses at its lower prices)

Sir, a monstrous real estate crisis is being fabricated by regulators who can’t come to grips with the simple fact of life that if you blow too much credit into a market, you will create a bubble that, sooner or later, will explode L

@PerKurowski

A Universal Basic Income could turn many marginal jobs into decent employments.

Sir, Sarah O’Connor writes: “One of the defining economic challenges for today’s policymakers is how to make service sector jobs more decent, with better pay, security training and opportunity for progression”, “Payday lender’s demise will not free workers from the labour trap” September 5.

I do not agree. Few years ago I wrote that before our policymakers invest (waste) scarce resources trying to guess were the markets are going and create jobs, we need to build the floor and create decent and worthy unemployments. 

“Better pays” raises the bar, something that could even kill jobs. A Universal Basic Income, that could start at a very low and absolutely sustainable level, could help many to reach up, more decently, to whatever jobs were available.

That would allow employment to be much more “the answer to financial distress, not the cause of it.”

@PerKurowski

We need to rethink productivity data, in light of so many “working hours” spent consuming distractions.

Sir, referencing Chris Giles’ and Gavin Jackson’s “Surge in low-value jobs magnifies UK productivity problem” of August 13, I believe that whenstating “increases in low-wage jobs in bars, social work and warehouses have served to hold back UK productivity growth” it hints at sort of causation that might not really be there.

I say so because we have entered a new era that requires redefining entirely the ways we measure productivity. 

Some months ago, in Bank of England’s “bankunderground” blog, we read a post by Dan Nixon titled “Is the economy suffering from the crisis of attention?”. It said, “With the rise of smartphones in particular, the amount of stimuli competing for our attention throughout the day has exploded... we are more distracted than ever as a result of the battle for our attention. One study, for example, finds that we are distracted nearly 50% of the time.”

Nixon, answering the question posed in the title wrote, “The most obvious place to look would be in productivity growth, which has been persistently weak across advanced economies over the past decade.”

But, what if instead of being recorded as distractions during working hours, these were to be recorded as a private consumption that reduces the effective working hours? Would that not increase GDP and reduce working hours, and thereby point instead to a dramatic increase in productivity?

In the same vein, would then not real-salaries, instead of stagnating, have been increasing a lot?

And what about our employment and unemployment data if the time used to consume distractions during working hours would not be counted as work? 

Sir, it behooves us to make certain how we measure the economy gets updated to reflect underlying realities. 

Perhaps then we are able to understand better the growing need for worthy and decent unemployments.

Perhaps then we are able to better understand the need for a Universal Basic Income, not as to allow some to stay in bed, but to allow everyone a better opportunity to reach up to whatever gainful employments might be left, like those “low-wage jobs” that it behooves us all, not to consider as “low value jobs”

@PerKurowski

Those who sell us a universal basic income as a total solution, could just be wanting for it to fail

Sir, I refer to Tim Harford’s “Basic income or basic jobs?” June 29. The theme has become more fashionable because of robots and artificial intelligence, but the lack of jobs is not a new concern.

In 2003 in an Op-ed I wrote: “There’s a hint of all coming to a standstill in the theory about how globalization will optimize the world economy, by ensuring that merchandise will always be produced at the lowest marginal cost. What good does it do us to have products where the cost of the labor component gets smaller by the minute, if workers can’t buy the very products they produce?”

I ended that in jest with “Friends, let’s give one another jobs, scratching each other’s backs—paying each other good salaries of course.”

In 2012, while I was still not censored in Venezuela, in another Op-Ed titled “We need decent and worthy unemployments” I began it with: “What politician does not speak up for the need to create decent and well paid jobs for young people? But, if that's not possible, and the economy is not able to deliver that on its own ... What on earth do we do?”

In search of the answer I there asked: “Which is better: educating for a source of employment likely to be absent and therefore only create frustration, or educate for unemployment, and suddenly perhaps reaching, when on that route, the pleasant surprise of some jobs?”

Therefore Sir, in the choice between a basic income and a basic job, I clearly go for the first. The waste that could result, especially in uncertain times like these to develop guaranteed jobs, would surely be too big.

But that does not mean I consider that a Universal Basic Income either can or should be designed to satisfy all needs. For the time being it should just be a tool to help people get out of bed and reach up to whatever job opportunities might be around.

How much? Start with little. For instance, if there are pressures to increase the minimum wage $3 per hour then, for a fulltime 160 hour per month that signify $480. So why not start a UBI at that level and let time tell us where it can go? The additional demand that could be generated will, at existing salary levels, generate many jobs too.

What I most fret though are the redistribution profiteers. Concerned with seeing the value of their franchise erode, they might sell UBI’s promises excessively, both in amounts and purpose, so as to make the whole idea of a social dividend collapse, in order for them to get back in the saddle again. It behooves us all to stop them.

@PerKurowski

We need worthy and decent unemployments

Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “Work in the age of intelligent machines” June 27.

In 2012 (while I was still not censored in Venezuela) I wrote an Op-Ed titled “We need worthy and decent unemployments”. In it I held “The power of a nation, and the productivity of its economy, which so far has depended primarily on the quality of its employees may, in the future, also depend on the quality of its unemployed, as a minimum in the sense of these not interrupting those working.”

That is the reason why I am absolutely sure our societies have to start urgently, even if from a very low level, to implement an unconditional universal basic income (UBI).

And referring also to Sarah O’Connor’s “Minimum wage laws still fall short for those on the bottom” June 27, let me point out that while minimum wages raises the bar for the creation of jobs, UBI is a stepping stool that allows you to reach up to the mostly low paying jobs of the gig economy. 

PS. You want to increase the minimum wage $2 per hour? Better pay $2x40x4 $320 in universal basic income to all.

@PerKurowski

Dodd-Frank rollback on mortgages heralds even higher house prices and even less financing of job creation.

Sir, I refer to Barney Jopson’s and Ben McLannahan’s “Dodd-Frank rollback heralds mortgage push” May 17.

Because of the risk weighted capital requirements bank credit is geared to finance what is perceived or decreed as presently safe, like houses and the government, and to stay away from financing the “riskier” future, like entrepreneurs.

Of course I am glad for “a bill aimed at giving small banks relief from post-crisis reforms that had driven them out of parts of the market” so to give these some “more opportunity [to] offer mortgages to folks we know”

I just wish the roll back had meant the risk-weighted capital, so to incentivize small and big banks to give more credit opportunities to entrepreneurs, in order to give “folks we know” more chances of finding the jobs that will help them to service their mortgages and utilities.

PS. One very needed research is on how much of current house prices are the result of regulatory or other subsidies to the financing of mortgages. When now buying a house, how much might we currently have to finance because of the financing of all other purchased houses? 

@PerKurowski

Whether pension plans are based on defined benefits, defined contributions or a mixture thereof, in order to deliver, they all depend on the economy being healthy.

Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “The case for an alternative pensions model” April 6.

For decades I have sustained that the best pension plan that exists, is to have loving children working in a functional and reasonably healthy economy. And that long before Venezuela proved how good pension plans could come rapidly to absolute naught by irresponsible governments.

If the economy is in shambles when pension fund assets have to be converted into purchasing capacity, it does not matter whether these are based on defined benefits, defined contributions or a mixture of these.

With risk weighted capital requirements for banks that favor an over-indebtedness resulting from financing the "safer" present consumption, like houses, over the financing of riskier future production, like entrepreneurs, there will be no economy capable to deliver even a fraction of what is currently expected from pensions.

Wolf refers to the importance to sharing “the risks among a very large group of people…across generations”. Indeed but those now young will tomorrow ask Wolf and his generation… why did you not allow banks to share in the risk taking needed for us to have a future?” and they might with justification give their elders the finger.

Currently, having already to live in the basements of their parents houses because of the lack of jobs, the minimum the young today will hold tomorrow is: “Mom, dad, you move downstairs, its our turn to live upstairs!”

PS. Yes, I am obsessive about the distortions that the risk weighted capital requirements for banks cause in the allocation of bank credit to the real economy, but Martin Wolf, for less worthy reasons, is even more obsessive when ignoring it.

PS. Current “midlife crisis” could be a piece of cake compared to what awaits.

@PerKurowski

Preferential access to bank credit for those buying houses have also turned houses in attractive investments, and so a house is no longer just a house

Sir, I refer to Sarah O’Connor’s “Cities only work if they accommodate rich and poor” March 21.

She is correct although it would be more precise saying that cities only work if they accommodate all those workers required to make a city work.

Here is my take on this issue.

By politicians and regulators giving so much preference to the purchase of houses, the prices of houses have been inflated beyond reflecting the need of houses, and so have also turned houses into attractive investments. That has created a financial disequilibrium because most workers who would anyhow struggle to pay for just houses, will find it impossible to service mortgages that also reflect the value of investment assets.

Most politicians would naturally want to be seen as helping people buy affordable houses, but they do wrong in that. What they should do is to help people to be able to afford housing, something which is absolutely not the same thing.

Before we clear out this distortion, our cities will suffer from what O’Connor’s describes. Alternatively, current house asset owners, might be required to start building houses where they allow the indispensable workers to live at a reduced rate… something that could affect the value of their houses.

In many places that are too distant for the firefighters to arrive in time, we have already heard of building houses in order to provide homes close by to these.

PS. For the purpose of the capital requirements for banks regulators have risk weighted  residential mortgages with 35% and loans to entrepreneurs with 100%, which means bank can leverage much more with residential mortgages than with loans to entrepreneurs, which means banks earn much higher expected risk adjusted return on equity with residential mortgages than with loans to entrepreneurs, which mean we will end up sitting in houses without the jobs that could provide the income to service mortgages or utilities.

PS. How much of current house prices is the direct result of easy financing? I ask because it would be interesting to know how much we are financing with easy financing of houses the easy financing of houses.

PS. One of the biggest pension crisis will be when we see all those who trusted houses to be safe investments, trying to cash out in order to convert these back into main-street purchase capacity to use in older days L

PS. Too much preferential finance for the purchase of houses, which increases demand for houses, which increases houses prices, and turns safe homes into risky investment assets, also promotes inequality as those without a house are further left behind… until L

@PerKurowski

A Universal Basic Income has much more to do with being able to say, “Yes, here I come!” than with a freedom to say, “No, I prefer to stay in bed”.

I refer to Tim Harford’s conversation with Rutger Bregman on the subject of a basic income, while bouldering. “Rutger Bregman: ‘Basic income is all about the freedom to say no’” March 20.

Sir, look at Venezuela. Believe me when I say that 40% of the poorest of my homeland received less than 15% of what they should have received the last fifteen years, had our net oil revenues just been shared out equally among all Venezuelans. And then you might beguine to understand my deep resentment with any redistribution profiteers. To bypass this kind of profiteers, in abundance all over the world, is in itself a reason more than enough to justify a Universal Basic Income.

That said, in 2012, before I was censored in Venezuela, and based on the lack of jobs I had begun visualizing in 2003, I also wrote an Op-Ed titled “We need decent and worthy unemployments”. That de facto calls out for a UBI, before it is too late and our social structures break down in favor of the many aspiring Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro of this world.

But Bregman argues: “OK, so basic income is all about the freedom to say no. That’s a privilege for the rich right now. With a basic income, you can say no to a job you don’t want to do. You can say no to a city in which you no longer want to live. You can say no to an employer who harasses you at work . . . that’s what real freedom looks like.”

And there I have to say no! That sounds to me like a spoiled brat’s view about what a basic income should mean. Such a Universal Basic Income becomes, almost by definition, financially unsustainable. I argue instead for a UBI that provides you with an assistance to get out of bed in order to reach up to whatever the spreading Gig economy has to offer you; but not so large so as to allow you to stay in bed, because that will sure make others refuse to pay for what the UBI might take.

Sir, every time I hear someone offering more than what a UBI can sustainably offer, I feel I we could be in the presence of a redistribution profiteer out to sabotage it, all in order to defend the value of his franchise.

PS. The article has that “A basic income [could be handed out] through the tax system as a negative income tax.” Not so. A tax credit that you start losing the minute you step out of bed to work, is not an unconditional Universal Basic Income.

PS. When Rutger Bregman opines “What’s the biggest injustice in the world right now? It’s pretty easy to see. It’s borders: apartheid on a global scale.” I would have asked. If there are no borders, how much in UBI do you think your homeland would accept to pay to any immigrant?

http://myubi.blogspot.com/2017/01/my-universal-basic-income.html

@PerKurowski

In terms of a short-termism that harms the long run, few are as guilty as current bank regulators.

Sir, Jonathan Ford quote US academic Lynn Stout with “The pressure to keep share prices high drives public companies to adopt strategies that harm long-term returns: hollowing out their workforce; cutting back on product support and on research and development; taking on excessive risks and excessive leverage; selling vital assets and even engaging in wholesale fraud.” “Shareholder primacy lies at heart of modern governance problem” March 5.

Indeed, but I hold that low investments and poor productivity is also the result of regulators’ risk weighted capital requirements for banks based on ex ante perceived risks. These focuses on making the banks safe today, at the price of making it all worse off tomorrow, ex post. How? Because they dangerously push banks to overpopulate, against especially little capital, those safe havens that have always been the main threats to our banking systems; and because they keep banks from exploring those risky bays, those with entrepreneurs and SMEs, those that could give us the growth and the jobs of tomorrow.

@PerKurowski

Easing it for some bureaucrats, like with munis, does mean, de facto, making it harder for other, like entrepreneurs and SMEs

Sir, John Dizard writes “a bipartisan bank regulation reform bill that has passed a crucial Senate committee would require the entire federal regulatory apparatus to loosen the restrictions on counting munis as part of the high-quality liquid assets pool, and reduce the capital charges on holding muni positions.” “Vix horror show will not deter future suckers” February 19.

Sir, that would lead to more demand for munis, so that local bureaucrats can decide what to do with even more funds derived from debts our grandchildren will have to pay; which will naturally lead to less bank credit for those entrepreneurs and SMEs that could help our grandchildren to access jobs and revenues streams that could assist them in repaying these munis... and having a life. Great bipartisan job Senators! 

@PerKurowski

What if all finance help provided house buyers in Canada, which increases demand, reflects 30% of current house prices?

Sir, with respect to Ben McLannahan’s extensive report on the Canadian house market February 9, “Canada’s home loans crisis”, I would just want to ask:

What if regulatory and all other support developed in order to provide house buyers in Canada easier financing, something that obviously increases the demand for houses, translates into being, let us say, 30% of the current house prices in Canada?

Who has that then benefitted, buyers or vendors?

Does this mean Canada must now help with new financing to house buyers only in order to pay for old financing help?

How could something like that not end in a disaster?

As I see it much more important than helping our young to affordable houses, is helping our young to afford houses. Ce n'est pas la même chose!

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2018/01/many-of-our-young-will-be-without-jobs.html

@PerKurowski

The risk weighted capital requirements for banks close way too many development doors.

Sir, Martin Wolf referring to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects writes: “A slowdown in the potential rate of growth is affecting many developing countries. This is not only the result of demographic change, but also of a weakening in productivity growth. They need to tackle this urgently.” “Recovery is a chance for the emerging world” January 17.

Sir, during my two years as an Executive Director of the World Bank, and with respect to the Basel Committees’ bank regulations, I continuously argued for the need to maintain “an adequate equilibrium between risk-avoidance and the risk-taking needed to sustain growth.”

At the High level Dialogue on Financing for developing I presented a document titled “Are Basel bank regulations good for development?” which I answered with a clear NO!

In 2009 Martin Wolf, in his Economic Forum allowed me to publish “Free us from the imprudent risk aversion and give us some prudent risk-taking”.

And in hundreds sites more, among other with over 2600 letters to FT, I have argued about the horrible mistakes of the risk weighted capital requirements for banks present, not just for developing countries but also for developed ones.

The distortion these produce in the allocation of bank credit in favor or what is perceived or decreed as safe, sovereigns, AAA rated and mortgages, has impeded millions of “risky” entrepreneurs around the world to gain access to bank credit, thereby hindering much new productivity.

And those regulations will not bring us stability, much the contrary.

So the first thing to do to allow what Wolf wants, “greater entrepreneurial effort, more competition, higher investment and faster improvements in productivity”, is the elimination of risk weighted capital requirements for banks.” But Martin Wolf will most probably not agree, because how could he?

Sir, and as I have told you umpteenth times those regulations will not bring us stability, much the contrary.

PS. Look for instance at houses. What would the price of a house be if there was no financing available to purchase these? Of the current price of houses how much is represented by the intrinsic value of the house, and how much is a reflection of all one-way-or-another subsidized financing allocated to that sector? The sad truth is that our society has ended up financing the financing of houses. When all that low risk weighted mortgaging comes home to roost in a subprime unproductive economy, it will be hellish.

@PerKurowski

The windows for poverty reduction will shrink dramatically, as robots and automation help bring back to developed countries the jobs lost to poorer ones.

Sir, Ben Bland writes: “Automation in Bangladesh may not make sense because you still have to ship but, if you make in the US, it makes more sense because there’s no [import] duty, no shipping, you’re closer to the customer and there are shorter lead times,” said Mr Rajan. “March of the robots stalls as clothes maker Crystal backs human workers” January 2.

What can I say? Should those robots working in the US share a moment of silence for those poor Bangladesh workers they will be substituting for?

https://perkurowski.blogspot.ca/2017/02/here-some-disorderly-lose-cannon.html

@PerKurowski

Our best hope for a decent and affordable adult social care must be minimizing the intermediaries’ takes, whether these are private or public

Sir, Diane Coyle when discussing the possibilities and need for organizing for instance adult social care, and thereto taking advantage of new methods to connect demand and supply and as exemplified by Uber, expresses concern for “the treatment and status of workers in platform public services (although it is not as if these are high-status jobs at present)” “Algorithms can deliver public services, too” December 19.

What’s missing though in that good analysis, is not having contemplating additional tech advances. For example Uber wants to buy self driven cars, in order to get the complications of human drives out of their way, but without realizing that consumers might at one point take direct contact with those cars, in order to get Uber out of the way.

The same will happen for workers in public services, though of course the increased demand for adult social care should help to keep up the demand for many of them. But, even in this case who knows? If you think of yourself as an older person soiled with your own feces, what’s currently is delicate referred to as an “accident”, who would you feel most comfortable with cleaning you, a not too human 1st class robot or a human? 

Sir, the way our generation, and governments have gone on a debt binge, to anticipate current consumption, there will come a time for a reckoning. If we do not find ways to minimize the intermediaries’ take, we will not afford the basic services we need and want.

Of course intermediaries are workers too… and that is why even for them we need to create decent and worthy unemployments.

@PerKurowski