Editor

The Westminster government skews the choices Covid-19 faces us with. It takes the main dichotomy in policy decision making to be the ’choice’ between keeping economic activity high and keeping everyone safe.

But the real dichotomy, i.e choice, is between keeping everyone safe and our economy continuing to dissave.

For with dissaving sufficently great, we could keep everyone theatened by non-necessary dangerous work on furlough on an income of about £24,000 pa, given that the protective measures might cost a third of GDP. Indeed, that is the income we could allocate to every adult and child in the economy - it is the current UK per capita income reduced by a third.

The catch-up cost of furlough-supporting incomes will be about £150 billion.

This sum is of course best raised by sequestering the whole amount from the financial wealth of the richest one per cent of households. That sum would constitute 1/80 of their total wealth.

And of course, £24,000 is the UEI, the Universal Equal Income, i.e for absolutely everyone, in our reduced circumstances, that we can afford here.

The real dichotomous choice is not between risking the health of workers to keep GDP up and keeping everyone safe, but between keeping everyone safe and letting the richest one per cent keep their wealth and all those above average income keeping all their income.

The government doesn’t even have the proper aim in respect of keeping people safe. The proper aim is to minimise the number of seriously ill people, hence of deaths and of cases. The seriously ill experience a horrific illness. They are intubated and put on a ventilator.

Minimising the number of people that happens to, is achieved by ensuring the right number of people are let off dangerous work conditions. And the only cost of that is to the financial wealth of the richest one per cent, if we act justly.

A society like ours delegates the major part of its saving to the richest one per cent. For us to dissave is for the one per cent to dissave. Sequestration of their wealth is exactly that, namely our economy dissaving and spending.

Covid-19, like Austerity, Brexit and the Climate Emergency, should not be left to our children and grandchildren to pay for. It should be paid for by our too rich elites. Let us hope Mark Drakeford sees it that way too.

Dr Mac MacIntyre

Shelbourne Court

St John’s Hill

Barmouth