{"id":1964,"date":"2020-10-08T00:37:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T16:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/?p=1964"},"modified":"2026-08-04T22:59:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:59:56","slug":"the-balancing-act-fallacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/?p=1964","title":{"rendered":"The Balancing Act fallacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking to Andrew Marr on 4<sup>th<\/sup> October, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \u201cAnd, you know, we\u2019ve got to continue to bear down on this virus, whilst protecting the economy. That\u2019s the balance we\u2019ve got to strike.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Few will take him to task for saying this, as it is a sentiment that is widely held.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, I will.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem, as ever, is the way we use terms and the presuppositions we make.\u00a0 People talk of getting the economy going again, as if it\u2019s a stalled vehicle.\u00a0 If only we can restore what was working before, they think, then we would be more or less OK from an economic perspective.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since restoring the old normal is not fully compatible with measures needed to combat the spread of the virus,\u00a0 there is a need to balance the two, they believe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if we look more closely at what exactly needs attention we could look to address the economic dilemma more imaginatively than just envisioning a return to what was.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look more closely at what people and businesses want from the economy:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n<li>For people, that they have sufficient income to meet their ongoing costs with a bit left over to treat themselves and their family, take a break and save for the future<\/li>\r\n<li>For businesses, that they have sufficient revenue to meet their ongoing costs with a bit left over to grow their businesses, invest in R&amp;D and reward their staff with bonuses and investors with dividends.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both will agree that meeting costs is the most important of these: the bit left over is what we live for, but we can put it on hold for a while if necessary.\u00a0 However, if this \u201cbit left over\u201d is not spent, businesses may be starved of revenue.\u00a0 Furthermore, if government rules mean that businesses cannot operate as they did previously, they will not be able to sell their product or service at all or as effectively and thus will lose revenue.\u00a0 If they shed staff to reduce costs, those newly made redundant will have insufficient income to meet their personal ongoing costs. This will this impact businesses further since we are all business customers.\u00a0 It\u2019s a vicious circle.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it\u2019s a vicious circle <em>because it\u2019s a circle. <\/em>\u00a0What makes it so vicious is also what makes it avoidable.\u00a0 For what both people and businesses need right now is their income assured.\u00a0 If it is then they can financially play their part in providing that revenue for other businesses which will then result in personal incomes being protected.\u00a0 To the extent that it happened before the pandemic (the \u201cold viable\u201d) it is perfectly economically possible for it to happen after.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is prevented from happening because to comply with the government\u2019s health strategy some products and services become unavailable.\u00a0 And where that is so, the financial transactions that are needed to keep the money circulating, thus protecting businesses and personal incomes, do not happen.\u00a0 But the point is if you can make the financial transaction happen then the purely <em>economic<\/em> problem is solved.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through the Job Retention Scheme and the various support grants and loans that the government has made available, some of the necessary financial transaction substitutions have been made.\u00a0 The problem is that now it is apparent that the JRS needs to run much longer than the government planned.\u00a0 And because it has made no attempt up to now to balance its books by taxing to finance its spending, it has now decided that the continuation of these necessary economic measures is unaffordable.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it\u2019s at this point that you realise that the government just hasn\u2019t got it.\u00a0 Their measures have delivered benefical economic outcomes in proportion with the extent they mirrored what was happening pre-lockdown, but in their minds this carried a general economic burden that the old activity did not because the latter was &#8220;generating wealth&#8221;. For they see wealth as being created by economic activity and what they think they are doing has been to put an extremely expensive sticking plaster in place until such time as this economic activity can return to normal to bring the wealth back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I and many other green economists have argued, it\u2019s a mistake to conflate GDP\/economic activity with wealth creation.\u00a0 Not all of what they want to return is wealth-creating in real terms, particularly polluting activities such as air travel.\u00a0 The value of these activities to the economy is that they <em>stimulate circulation<\/em> by offering attractive services.\u00a0 It\u2019s the <em>circulation<\/em> that serves the economy: the cost\/benefits in terms of wealth of the activity itself can only properly be assessed using different metrics<a href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In conclusion, then: to protect the economy the government needs to keep money circulating.\u00a0 To protect its people (and by doing so invest in future wealth creation) it needs to pursue a health strategy designed to combat the spread of the virus as much as possible without putting intolerable strains on supplies of essential goods and services, the provision of education and the protection of people\u2019s mental and emotional wellbeing.\u00a0 There <em>is<\/em> a balance to be struck within the latter, but between the former and the latter there is none: both can be achieved so long as the government is prepared through taxation to circulate money to replicate as closely as possible the transactions that have been lost through the imposition of restrictions<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">October 2020<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> The metrics are not naturally monetary, however there is little in life that one cannot attach some monetary value if one finds it helpful.\u00a0 The point is, however, that true wealth is primarily measured in terms of wellness and true capital (Natural, Intellectual, Social, Inspirational and Physical).\u00a0 For more on this see the <a href=\"https:\/\/abtax.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Asset-Based-Taxation-20150629.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/abtax.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Asset-Based-Taxation-20150629.pdf\">Seven Roads<\/a> document and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abtax.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/True-capital.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Some thoughts on True Capital and Wealth<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> For more on how this can be done, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/abtax.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Hibernate-and-Circulate.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/abtax.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Hibernate-and-Circulate.pdf\">Hibernate and Circulate<\/a> document<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking to Andrew Marr on 4th October, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \u201cAnd, you know, we\u2019ve got to continue to bear down on this virus, whilst protecting the economy. That\u2019s the balance we\u2019ve got to strike.\u201d Few will take him to task for saying this, as it is a sentiment that is widely held. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,11],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-1964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-covid-19","category-hibernate-and-circulate","tag-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1964"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2536,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964\/revisions\/2536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}