Annabel Denham

The economic illiteracy of anti-capitalists

Back in October, World Bank chief economist Carmen Reinhart recommended that countries borrow heavily during the pandemic. ‘First, you worry about fighting the war,’ she said, ‘then you figure out how to pay for it’. As thousands of mask-free demonstrators took to the streets of London this weekend to campaign on issues ranging from Palestine to climate change, you have to wonder: are we still at war? And does anyone care about the economy anymore?

It has been apparent for some time — though it may continue to confound psephologists — that issues such as identity, patriotism and culture are more important to the electorate than economic concerns. That the tensions between globalism and cosmopolitanism on the one hand, and nationalism and cultural particularism on the other, are key. Such is the result of the ongoing political realignment — after all, the best predictor of whether someone voted for Donald Trump in 2016 was whether they are fans of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Capitalist economies are superior to socialist economies in terms of their environmental record

The downgrading of economics to a second-order concern has seemingly been entrenched by the pandemic. We are weeks away from our national debt surpassing 100 per cent of total national income. According to the latest data, 3.4 million people are still on furlough — many of whom won’t have jobs to go back to. The hospitality and aviation sectors have been decimated by lockdowns. Yet identity issues are still drowning out economic ones; we’re too distracted by statues, plaques and cancelling heretics like J.K. Rowling to worry ourselves with trivial matters like government borrowing and unemployment statistics.

But while many may view these battles as occurring outside of economic debates, they nevertheless have a strong economic underpinning. It’s not obvious that spray painting the statue of Winston Churchill with the words ‘was a racist’ is part of a wider economic argument, but if you listen to culture warriors in the media they have a very particular understanding not just of how the economy works but why our current system must be overthrown.

Black Lives Matter claims in its mission statement that ‘we are guided by a commitment to dismantle… capitalism’.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in