From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Standing_%28economist%29#/media/File:Guy_Standing.jpeg
Basic income advocate Guy Standing provides a portrayal of the functional cynicism of the ruling Conservative Party’s recent UK budget announcements, showing how the policy package reflects a long-standing “moralistic utilitarianism” that continues hollowing out Britain’s democracy.
The British government and opposition’s all-pervasive demonization and punishment of the precariat (in a process dubbed “the triumph of moralism over morality”) goes hand in hand with the goal of enriching the perceived majority at the expense of the minority (considered electorally “utilitarian”), argues professor Standing.
Unmasking the hollow promise of the headline-grabbing “living wage” introduced by UK chancellor George Osborne and the shameful abolition of child benefits for third-born children (except, outrageously, for children who are proven to be conceived through rape), Standing concludes that the self-reinforcing trend is unsustainable because the ever-growing, ever-angrier precariat is bound to disrupt the two-party system deadlock, as well as the moral bankruptcy of the UK Labour Party.
Guy Standing, “The UK budget: King Canute and the triumph of moralism over morality.” OpenDemocracy, 20 July 2015
