Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Derek Thompson discusses how the U.S.' capitalist system has been designed to squeeze younger workers - leading to many of them being open to systemic change. And in the context of UK Labour's leadership campaign, Grace Blakeley writes about the need for socialists to talk in aspirational rather than merely incremental terms to ensure voters recognize that democratic change is possible:

The idea of ‘aspirational socialism’ is Long-Bailey’s answer to this problem. It was always going to be difficult to convince an electorate beaten down by a decade of austerity that their lives could suddenly be transformed for the better simply by ticking the right box on polling day. But reframing socialist transformation around the idea of ‘aspiration’ aims to cut through this pessimism and make Labour’s ideas seem more achievable. In the context of declining social mobility, stagnant wages and an impending climate catastrophe, it should not be difficult to argue that there exists a need for collective social transformation alongside individual self-advancement. 

Investing in our public services will allow people up and down the country to achieve their full potential, because you can’t build a better life for yourself if you can’t access a good education, decent healthcare and a safety net for when times get hard. Strengthening workers’ rights will allow people to work together to fight for better conditions, higher pay and dignity at work. And a Green New Deal will create jobs in places starved of investment for decades so that we can build a sustainable economy fit for the future.
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Long-Bailey can argue that live in a rigged economy in which the rules are made and enforced by a tiny elite that profits from keeping wages down, rents high and ordinary people out of politics. The only way to challenge this model is to deliver a democratic revolution that will redistribute wealth and power away from the Westminster-based establishment and towards working people up and down the UK. 
 
Aspirational socialism and the democratic revolution can both be realised through the creation of genuinely democratic collective institutions, which can also provide a substantive socialist response to the call of ‘take back control.’ Abolishing the House of Lords, making the Bank of England publicly accountable and devolving power to local councils will all help to democratise and politicise the British state. Strengthening the labour movement, transforming corporate governance and introducing new models of corporate ownership will deliver a more democratic economy geared towards collective advance.

- David Segal reports on a $60 billion tax evasion scheme which is just now seeing European countries try to recover what's been stolen from the public purse. And Nicholas Shaxson makes the case for a unitary tax system to ensure corporations pay a fair share worldwide, rather than the patchwork under consideration by the OECD.

- Jordan Weissmann examines how private equity has destroyed major retail outlets. And Simon Wren-Lewis discusses how an increased political focus on the individual interests of the extremely wealthy has resulted in an unhealthy environment for many businesses.

- Finally, CBC examines how Finland has used a Housing First model to ensure that everybody has a home.