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When jobs disappear because of developments in IT and industry, new occupations will arise – as always?

No, on this occasion it’s certainly very different. With very few exceptions, we’ll only be able to create useless, underpaid ‘gig’ jobs.

Failing genuine economic reform, any ‘recovery’ between now and 2026 will only be false, as governments and central banks continue to pump asset values. This adds to the privatised ‘R’ in Henry George’s equation P – R = W + I. That means that wages (W) and profits (I) will decrease, because there is a reciprocal relationship–not between wages and profits–but between privatised land rent and wages and profits.

This is nothing approaching a ‘market’ economy. Behind this new ‘gilded age’, private debt, poverty and dispossession has been growing rapidly, exacerbated by central banks and governments.

Unfortunately, Andrew Yang, while you’re on the right track, your US$12,000 pa UBI is a pretty miserable approach. At that rate, it can’t work for what lies ahead. A living wage UBI could replace all welfare as it also lowers business wage costs. A ‘Job Guarantee’ is insufficient, because that’s only: “You must all work for gig jobs because you have a duty to work!”

Inflation? That’s fundamentally generated by escalating land prices (notably missing from assessment of CPI) and is addressed by the LVT in VIMMLBUTT – as are the deadweight losses from other forms of tax.

So, you’re saying ‘VIMMLBUTT’ could repair financial madness?

Yup! Mainstream neoclassical economics has been feeding rentier capitalism’s 0.1% at the expense of the 99.9%. Except for a few heterodox economists, the principles behind VIMMLBUTT are unknown. Economist need to read Henry George before they criticise what he really said.

VIMMLBUTT is our final chance before the biggie, but I ain’t holding my breath on it, because there’s great power supporting the political policy of the rentier economy.