Long Covid & The Welfare State
My heart goes out to all those who are struggling with post covid fatigue and other work limiting health conditions, and who are struggling to hold down a low wage job, and who's employer thinks that the solution to their financial predicament is to work longer hours. Many simply can't.
I was offered this 'choice' too. I couldn't, so I walked. I'm lucky that I had that option. Redundancy settlements are a workers right secured through the work of unionised labour. I now work far fewer hours for a more understanding employer, one who values my worth & respects my limiting health condition.
Ironically, due to the limited hours that I can work, I no longer earn enough each year to pay any tax. And maybe that's what HMRC are most worried about. If more of us worked less hours, revenue from income tax would plummet. Unless people were paid fairly.
But in a post Covid world, where Long Covid has become the silent pandemic post pandemic, people need a fair days wage for a fair days work, and flexible working based around their ability to work. What we don't need is pressure to work more than they can.
My grandparents generation came out of the horrors of WW2 with a commitment from their government to build a 'country fit for heroes', housing, welfare, cheap energy & food, paid for through progressive taxation. A country that joined a new Europe based on peace, cooperation and understanding.
And my parents generation, the boomer generation, were the ones who benefited most from this. In the US this generation owns 70% of that countries wealth. We'd never had it so good, but this couldn't be allowed to last. In my own lifetime we've seen the neoliberal politics of self interest undo what we'd built.
领英推荐
For if we still had a progressive taxation system in this country, then it would still be possible for the state to look after the welfare and wellbeing of it's citizens. Imagine if we lived in such a country now, in a welfare state, how different things might be.
Coming out of the pandemic the new normal that we need is one based on compassion not exploitation. On meeting needs not greed. We need to rebalance our economy and relearn how to share the wealth of this wonderfully bountiful planet, before it is too late for us all.
We need a new welfare state.