The Cost of Living & Really Useful Knowledge
Really Useful Knowledge as opposed to the Really Useless variant was promoted by radicals in the 1830s and 1840s to focus not on the liberal economics of the day (think austerity)but on issues around who made profits and who benefited from them- the labour theory of value.
There was and is a political agenda here. Controlling excess profits, a genuine motor of inflation, hits the rich. Controlling wage increases below the level of inflation and interest rate rises keep profits going while making the less well off in society pay.
That was the agenda on display from Chancellor Hunt and the Bank of England boss Bailey on recently arguing again that wage rises cause inflation.
Wage increases are above 7% primarily because of high pay awards In private sector finance and business. The point is that there should be decent pay for all.
Alex Collinson from the TUC has noted that this is far from the case. In reality real wages fell by 1.7% in the last year and June was the nineteenth successive month of falling wages. Wage levels remain at 2005 levels.
Profits of energy companies and supermarkets however are at 2023 levels and with interest rates at a 15 year high both mortgage payers and renters face significantly hiked housing costs.
CPI Inflation has dropped to 7.9% but that still means significant price increases- grocery inflation in the supermarket is around 15%
The really useful knowledge that needs to be discussed and acted on in workplaces and communities is that the Tories and the bosses are determined that workers will pay for their crisis while they maintain and increase profits. But only if we let them get away with it
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