Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Breitbart; You might think a German bank would see telecommuting as a positive step towards a more climate friendly future. But according to Deutsche Bank, people who ditch the daily commute should be taxed.
From the report;
…
To save capitalism we must help the young
Democratic capitalism is under threat as increasing numbers of young people view the system as rigged against them. The pandemic has only exacerbated their economic disadvantage. However, there is a growing risk that as the young gain an electoral advantage, a populist politician will harness the anger and upend capitalism in ways that hurt inclusive development. To avoid this, we must now redistribute from the old to the young in ways we have not yet considered.
Don’t waste the crisis: How to address Europe’s challenges for the next decade
Post-covid, Europe has a unique opportunity to make greater use of fiscal policy to support the strategic goals – green, digital, levelling up – of the EU with public investment. For this to work, fiscal expansion must be sustained, fiscal rules rewritten and common fiscal capacity created. We detail the actions that are needed.
The fundamental right to connectivity
The pandemic has shown how the ‘haves’ are more resilient than the ‘have-nots’. Much of this is based on the gap between the two groups based on their access to technology. The divide in the US runs deepest along race and location (urban versus rural). To narrow this gap, we lay out our vision to develop an initiative that covers the more than half of households without proper broadband connection and a computer.
Rebuilding better economies and businesses – lessons from luxury
This year, ESG principles have escalated dramatically in the minds of customers and investors. Firms will have to produce less, avoid waste, and build products that last forever. In short, companies should: set the new trend; produce less, shop less, shop better; rethink the supply chain; spoil their local customers; reset the distribution footprint; build scale or be small and deal with second hand and rental models.
A work-from-home tax
People who can WFH and disconnect themselves from face-to-face society have gained many benefits during the pandemic. A five per cent
tax for each WFH day would leave the average person no worse off than if they worked in the office. It could raise $49bn per year in the US, €20bn in Germany, and £7bn in the UK. That can fund subsidies for the lowest-paid workers who usually cannot work from home.…
Read more: Deutsche Bank What We Must Do to Rebuild
Deutsche Bank has other helpful suggestions, such as encouraging the US Fed to relax about “inflation overshoots”, easier access to welfare, higher taxes for savers, and converting empty office buildings to apartments to prevent inner cities from depopulating.
The last suggestion, about encouraging the maintenance of high population densities in urban centres, I’m not sure exactly why that is a good idea in the middle of a pandemic.
The following is part of Deutsche’s explanation of why encouraging concentrated urban populations make sense in a post Covid world;
… Cue an influx of people. Cue the artists, craftspeople, and anyone who wants to live where they work on their passion. Indeed, the City of London has already said that unused office space may be used as artists’ residencies or galleries. Old office and retail stores will never be the same. We know that people are very good at redesigning random spaces into homes and, with these reforms in place, vacated city centres will quickly become magnets for the sort of people who ignite urban culture. To assist further, local councils can pedestrianise many city centre streets to facilitate community. This will not be hard – the pedestrianisation movement is already in full swing across many European cities. …
Read more: same link as above
I leave it to readers to figure out what they are talking about.
Deutsche Bank has around $780 billion dollars in assets under management, so there is a good chance a significant portion of your retirement savings is being managed by the people who commissioned and published this report.
DB’s absurd and harmful “carbon” [sic] ‘reduction’ position is an indication that no absurdity is too great for DB to support, including the above proposal.
Free Zyklon-B to every depositor.
Taxman / The Beatles
One, two, three, four, one, two
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Don’t ask me what I want it for
(Ah ah, Mr. Wilson)
If you don’t want to pay some more
(Ah ah, Mr. Heath)
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die (taxman!)
Declare the pennies on your eyes (taxman!)
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
And you’re working for no one but me (taxman!)
They seem to forget that when working from home you have increased costs for heating/air conditioning (depending on the season), as well as electricity for running all the gizmos needed when working from home, and the capital cost of those gizmos.
You don’t stop eating when working from home, and don’t have the benefit of a subsidised canteen.
I would be surprised if the directors of Deutsche Bank pay full cost for their business and other lunches. ( The Alex cartoon in the business section of the Daily Telegraph has a good line on the world of city bankers. Apparently the authors of the cartoon are fed real life scenarios by insiders.)
Nothing these people, like those from Deutsche Bank, say, makes any sense to normal people, It is therefore very hard to judge what they think that they are doing, but one suspect that they are up to no good.
Deutsche Bank had better be careful about their choice of words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVGOKaD7eSc
These people really know how to Ignite Urban Culture
The fires of rehabilitation have been displayed in Kenosha, Portland and Minneapolis .
It garners recruits to the cause and hammers the locals.
Those cities might just be too small to be resilient.
Millennials fueled the rise of urban life, but the oldest millennial is nearly 40. They’re moving away from cities, and the next generation, Gen Z, is much smaller. There simply aren’t enough young people to reinvigorate the cities.
Those walled cities are not far behind this idea.
Folks at DB seem to forget that we won the argument 75 years ago as to whether or not we’d let the Germans tell us what to do.
If the young people get mad, they might destroy capitalism.
So the obvious solution is to destroy capitalism ourselves so that they youths never get mad.
No. If the young people get mad they might destroy capitalism “in ways that hurt inclusive development”.
Aka they might not replace capitalism with a communist technocratic dictatorship the way they’re supposed to.
That’s what the ‘elites’ are afraid of. That the young will support populist leaders like Trump rather than unpopular elites like Gates and Soros.
They get mad when they see that “capitalism” puts people “in power”, at least gives the media megaphone, to patently inept people:
– Christine Lagarde (who ostensibly snubbed Ivanka Trump at the G20 (*)) said at the beginning of the so called “pandemic” that “the virus does not have a passport” (a take widely acclaimed at the time by the French intelligentsia).
– The very same leaders and “responsables politiques” who told us blocking a frontier was 1) not doable and 2) useless then switched position to create internal frontiers in France, locking people in one region, then nearly locking them up in their homes.
– Public health “experts” took all sorts of different (allegedly) scientific positions and policy views, changed their stance (which in itself is not proof of ineptness) without citing any strong new evidence (which is more problematic), did not discuss why they changed position. Masks were useless then quickly became essential and very efficient, apparently based on a single case study of TWO hairdressers working together (which immediately became “evidence”, unlike non randomized drug studies which were systematically described as annectodical).
– Many media darlings medical doctors took a very “précautionniste” position on some very old, very widely used drugs with very well described side effects but the very same people rushed to a new (very expensive) drug whose side effects are not so well known, but suspected to be extremely bad.
(*) definitively NOT taking a stance on whether Ivanka presence was appropriate, but if you are going to mock someone for not being admitted to a club, take care to not mock someone for being rejected by the village idiot club
Except it isn’t “capitalism”, it isn’t the private sector. It’s the health experts, who are employed by INSERM (French health research), CNRS (French research), and the international “civil (self)servants”…
That is how you manage a revolution…
“the ‘haves’ are more resilient than the ‘have-nots’.”
They have discovered that those who have made it a habit to take care of themselves are better able to handle change compared to those who have spent a lifetime waiting for someone else to take care of them.
The solution to this is to punish those who work in order to have more money to take care of those who don’t want to.
“…we must now redistribute from the old to the young in ways we have not yet considered.”
Punish success, and you will get less of it. Reward failure, and you will get more of it. Doesn’t that sound like a great way to “save” capitalism? But have you noticed how an ever-increasing percentage of redistributed wealth ends up in the pockets of the distributers? That is the real motive behind their attempts at social engineering. All their talk about climate change and social justice is just the means to an end.
“…we must now redistribute from the old to the young in ways we have not yet considered.”
I think that this ‘redistribution’ misses the fact that the young are subsidized for a longer time than ever before in history with many not joining the working population until they reach their early 20s.
Perpetual students seem to have a great time partying, whereas not so long ago most people joined the workforce at 16, and even longer ago they were working in factories, cotton mills and farms from the age of 12.
“and converting empty office buildings to apartments to prevent inner cities from depopulating.”
Last time I checked, there were just as many empty apartment buildings as there were empty office buildings.
All this will do is spend lots of other people’s money (OPM) in order to convert empty offices into empty apartments.
This is like the captain of the Titanic order the crew to move the deck chairs from the bow to the stern in order to re-balance the ship.
In Paris, you can’t turn an apartment of X m² into a professional office unless you have a permit. For that you buy a right to convert, mostly like a carbon right, not by growing trees, but by converting an office of X m² or 2*X m² (I still don’t understand when it’s doubled) not just anywhere, not just anywhere in Paris, but in the exact same “arrondissement” (district).
If you do Airbnb type stuff, either for more than 90 days per year or not in your main home, the appartement is then considered a professional “office”, even though the activity can be not professional (income declared as “LMNP” = “loueur meublé non professionnel” in the 2042 C PRO tax paper).
If your a senior French official, can you keep your mistress in an apartment without a permit?
Former President Mitterrand had her mistress and child in a flat on the presidency budget.
The commentariat defended that, saying that the family of the President is always on the budget of the nation. That’s true. But that’s one family, the publicly known one, not two!
niceguy
If – when? – France gets a Muslim President . . . .
Auto
Same here in Germany: you’ve got to have a permit to change the purpose of a building or even a single room. And I trust in our burocracy to stall anyones’ wet dreams to rapidly convert our inner cities.
“3707.6 F PRO tax paper”
actually 2042 C PRO
Sorry!
The Modern Potemkin Village! Utilizing ill-gotten private funds, obtained through onerous taxation of the producing class, to reconstruct buildings to appear as if they could actually hold humanity – where, oh where have we seen a similar approach like this before????
The reason there has been a mass exodus in the US of A from leftist-controlled city centers to the safer and saner sub-urbs in other American cities and states, is due to the Marxist riots and crazy policies of those elected(?) to preside over them. The Plandemic is part of the reason for this exodus; riots and Chaz-like activities purged the rest of the productive, sane, and patriotic citizenry and their businesses. Here in western Washington State, USA – most that have been driven away from the cities, have landed in the interior of this state, or better yet over the border into Idaho. Idaho carries a state income tax, where Washington does not – but living in Idaho has increasing become a safer and more American option than being attacked in Seattle.
So, pull out the lipstick, slather it over the pig of blue city centers, and Viola! the proles will return…
NOT.
Yours in WUWT,
I remain,
MCR
Populism seems a very important concept, sadly nobody even tried to define it!
If we are going to use it in nearly all the political “science” discussion, maybe it’s time to define the term…
As real scientists do with the terms they use.
“Populism” is when politicians do what the people want rather than what the elites want.
Which is clearly bad. Because the elites are on the right side of History and all that.
Populism is the belief that allowing someone to have more money than I do is wrong and that’s why we have government, to make sure that can’t happen.
Populism is the belief that big companies are inherently evil, therefore we need to make sure that government is strong enough to keep every business in the country on a really short leash.
Populism is just socialism without the social justice nonsense.
“vacated city centres will quickly become magnets for the sort of people who ignite urban culture.
To assist further, local councils can pedestrianise many city centre streets to facilitate community.”
The word “ignite” is a bad choice … “Facilitating community” through pedestrianisation always sounds good but the danger is that it creates more opportunities for muggings, more directions to escape in. Large numbers of security cameras can be installed, but there are always blind spots, and there is less scope for motorised pursuit. Same old town planning shibboleths being trotted out. I presented a paper on this issue at the CPTED International conference in Brisbane, 2001. “Elements of Surprise, Evolving Vistas, and 101 Exit Points.”
I believe the problem we have right now is that there are too many people who are eager to ignite urban culture.
Every policy they propose is opposed to their stated goals, so nothing new here. They industrialize nature to “save” it. The “tech” they industrialize nature with does the opposite to what they claim it will achieve. Solar farms have a heat island effect, adding to surface heat. Wind turbines sap wind energy, reducing evaporative cooling. Chopping down trees to burn in thermal power stations – say no more.
On and on it goes ….
The fact that they want to tax you for reducing your carbon footprint should tell you something. It’s not about saving the planet from climate change. It’s all about finding reasons to increase their power and taxing authority over the population.
Of course. Tax those that have it to support those that don’t have it. The diminishing return to zero is never realized because no matter how little someone has you can always take some of it.
The problem is that the people they want to tax are the ones who keep society running.
And we don’t have to.
Galt’s Gulch is getting more attractive by the day.
I’m thinking about starting to shift my 401K to have more international and less US exposure.
What a cluster flop of a rationalization for increasing taxes and implementing more marxist wealth redistribution! Germany is soooo hosed….
“…we must now redistribute from the old to the young in ways we have not yet considered.”
Actually, in many places including Aesop’s Fables — “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs” — this idea is considered in a way even a child can comprehend.
It”s official 1984 is here and now.
That’s be here for a while now, but no-one wants to admit it.
“…Cue an influx of people. Cue the artists, craftspeople, and anyone who wants to live where they work on their passion…”
Live where they work? That is WFH. Should be taxed.
They are assuming that the work stays where it is and that people are eager to move into the cities so they can be close to their employer.
According to their narrow minds, the only reason why more people don’t move into the cities is because their aren’t apartments for them.
In London, rich people live in the centre because they are rich and can afford it.
Ordinary people live in the outlying parts of London and have a miserable time commuting because its cheaper and all they can afford.
Some of us moved out of London altogether over 20 years ago, became self-employed and commute in when essential to see a client. Otherwise we live in a more pleasant rural environment and travel a short distance to an office in a local town (or work from home, as at the moment). Travel to London on business is then tax deductible as no longer your normal place of work.
The bank should fire these guys for advocating a government policy which results in people having less money on deposit in the bank, and fewer funds for the bank to manage. After all, the banks lending to borrowers of several times what they have on deposit, with government oversight, is the very cornerstone of the monetary system and financial wealth of a country.
Warren and Schumer have convinced themselves that excusing school loans is the perfect way to recharge the economy.
According to them, people are having to spend hundreds of dollars a month on these school loans. If they weren’t spending money on loans they could go out and buy other stuff and the economy will take off.
Of course all they are doing is shifting money from one pocket to another. Not a dime in wealth or income is created. It just moves from the politically out of favor to the politically in favor. As yet another group learns to expect all good things to come from government handouts.
Keynesian sleight-of-hand. Moving money around to create the illusion of growth.
Creating “common fiscal capacity” sounds something like ” to each according to their needs”.
There is a name for areas where empty buildings are converted to casual accommodations and ‘creative’ spaces – SLUMS.
Also, while we are on the topic – Ghost Ship Warehouse Fire.
36 dead.
Would it be fair to suggest they are saying “Tax walking”?
All that guff about redistributing to ‘the young’ could be very simply achieved by telling Governments not to Print Money
Because doing so trashes interest (savings) rates and drives inflation. Savings thus go backwards.
But if you’re that bit older, you will invested in ‘property’ and that will give you the security banks are now forced to demand before they will lend you money, at the lower interest rates because of all the free (printed) money flooding the financial markets.
Even after the banks have taken their hefty slice off.
Someone here said that the banks lend (typically mortgage) money based on the amount of deposits they hold from savers.
Bollox
If someone wants/gets a mortgage, the bank simply enters the number/amount into their computers and the lender is then required to ‘find’ that money
Meanwhile, someone else can go off and spend that money (as a lump sum) well before the borrower has created it.
Can we all see something inherently wrong with that while not quite knowing what?
The banks cannot though, they take a slice off both ways.
Nice work if you can get it
Hence all the waffle about creating old offices into homes. Folks will need mortgages to do that and The Banks will print the money to allow them to do so.
Effectively it is Positive Feedback and as we all (should) know, positive feedback systems always blow up
Will post this one again, it explains:
Utter bollox.
Banks do not create money.
Banks can only lend a fraction of the money that has been deposited with them. Only the economically ignorant and those eager to confuse claim that this process creates money.
There is not and never has been a “requirement to find the money”, that’s your paranoid delusion.
MarkW, huh? It is created in a chain of banking transactions with the government central bank controlling the lending … sort of a Ponzi scheme that is controlled to a level that everyone has faith in the transactions being reliable…..Say you sign a mortgage agreement to buy a house….the bank doesn’t have that money in their vault, they send an IOU to the house builder, who pays all his sub-trades and workers with IOU’s called cheques, that his bank issues because they have an IOU from the mortgage holding bank. Eventually the mortgage holding bank sells the mortgage to the central bank, and uses the “money” to cover their IOU. The central bank calls the mortgage purchase an “asset” because they bought it and people are making payments on it…..So Money created out of faith that everyone’s IOU is worth something. Fannies and Freddies and Mortgage Backed Securities along the way improve everyone’s confidence that they can get “their” money back. The money was created as soon as the mortgage was approved, which the bank did because they could sell the MBS to the central bank, and Fannie or Freddy would guarantee the mortgage as it was within guidelines. Governments that try to force the system beyond where people have faith that they will get “their” money back, cause collapse of their currency.
Atlas Shrugged, Animal Farm and of course “1984”. Probably a lot of Brave New World too, but I don’t know for sure since I haven’t read it but saw a movie of it. Any other fiction becoming fact?
Fahrenheit 451.
Will DeuceBank fund any of this from their own MASSIVE profits.???
Or does it have to be the taxpayer. !
WOW! Another bank wanting more money for nothing.
The privilege of flying masked passengers and covid relief cargo and occasionally HR’s from home? Not really quite so.
First, I’ll need quite a living room to contain the full operation extend. Then, unless they move in too, no duty free shops to bring cheap perfumes for my wife, booze for my friends and smokes for myself.
Them bank guys surely need further reality training.
Deutsche Bank is the perfect example of a Zombie bank, permanently on the point of implosion.
They have to spout the NEWSPEAK in order to ensure they are able to continue to receive fiat money from their masters.
Funny how many businesses and politicians are now spouting identical NEWSPEAK these days – not.
I think I figured out what they are talking about. Which leaves me with one question: who will bake the bread?
What will they come up with next?
Maybe a tax for the “priviledge” of having to shut up and follow orders?
Over 99% of today’s artists/craftsmen labor passionately to fill tomorrow’s landfills.
Let’s fund that! /sarc
The DB will garantee that the youngs get the money from the old ?
But aren’t there more younger (25 – 45 yeas old) working from homeoffice ?
The rebelling youth is not known to work much, most are scholars or students, so, they first have to learn to earn their life.
I am not a building designer nor do I have any significant renovation experience, so I have to wonder: What is involved in converting a high-rise office building into a high-rise apartment building? What changes are required to provide the appropriate bathroom and kitchen facilities for each apartment unit? Most office buildings I’ve seen have “communal” washroom facilities on each floor, and maybe a kitchenette/coffee room. Will permanent, soundproof walls be required? What about fire safety for each apartment unit? What about HVAC changes for 24/7/365 living?
Can these changes be made without gutting the entire office building?
This idea seems easier said than done.
You got it ight. Gut and rebuild.
Plumbing -> Showers/tubs/washing machines, bathroom/kitchen sinks, grey/black water pipes.
Electrical -> 220v for range/dryer/misc, multiple outlets, multiple meters and breakers, etc.
the creatives will occupy the vacant space. it will be creatively done. you and I are not creative enuf to be able to understand the creative process. if you do not shut up and agree we will all assume that you are biased against the creatives.
Welcome to the Groundhog century.
Playing with economies is playing with fire.
On top of pandemic and racist trade wars against China and Russia, the global green Luddite wrecking ball could be the final straw that makes 2029 the new 1929.
Then comes Weimar, then you know what.
While I agree that the trade war that CHina has been engaged in regards to the rest of the world has tinges of racism in it. The Chinese have always considered themselves to be a chosen race.
However only a total moron (Phil has qualified for this title many times over) would declare the a trade war with Russia is inherently racist.
“People who can WFH and disconnect themselves from face-to-face society have gained many benefits during the pandemic.”
The Great Reset.
The dangerous, freedom crushing, global communism, dystopia of the evil Schwab: to whom almost all western leaders now genuflect.
“higher taxes for savers”
That’s a lovely one. Punish those that actually plan to take care of themselves!
Those who plan to take care of themselves, don’t need to depend on government. Those who don’t depend on government are less likely to vote more powers for government. Ergo, they must be punished.
Wow. Just wow. If these people think that “democratic capitalism” is rough on the youngins, just wait until they find out how hard “democratic socialism” will be on them. For one thing, as an older citizen, once the socialists eliminate any incentive for me to work any more, I’ll just retire early like they do in Greece. I’ll be happy to let the kids who think socialism is going to be awesome pay for the next 30+ years of my retirement.
And just who will this inflation that they don’t want to worry about affect the most? The poor and young, who spend much more on goods and services than the older, more affluent do. The young will never get the opportunity to accumulate wealth. (The upside to runaway inflation is that it will most attack those who think that they aren’t getting the bill for runaway government spending)
And yes, it’s possible that they’ll try to rob me of my retirement savings. But they aren’t going to get very much in exchange. They can take every penny I own, but they will still be hurting themselves worse because they’ll never be able to take away a lifetime of opportunities that the former free-market America gave me that they’ll never get to enjoy. They’ll spend their entire lives in mediocrity.
As for taxing WFH: I’ve been working from home for over 30 years. In addition to paying for my own infrastructure to do this, I have spared our shared infrastructure the addition use that not working from home would entail. I could easily argue that not only should I not be taxed for this, I should be subsidized for reducing my carbon footprint.
You just assume you will get an incentive to retire. That will be against “social justice” since that would give you more than the young. So plan on working till you die which will be soon since “social justice” requires those with more life ahead of them to live get priority on medical treatment.
The end will be the same as every communist country ever. Soviet Russia, Cuba, etc. A rush to the bottom as people become greedy and will not work beyond anyone else. The only people with anything are the leaders who are willing to kill to achieve what they want.
Since the time I have left in life will be about the same for “working” versus “not working”, I’ll just go ahead with the “not working”. The advantage of doing that is that it will make two salient points to the youngins:
1) To be viable, socialism must be coercive. Very coercive.
2) What is in store for them in the future.
Unfortunately, history repeats.
“The last suggestion, about encouraging the maintenance of high population densities in urban centres, I’m not sure exactly why that is a good idea in the middle of a pandemic. ”
The high population densities in urban centers largely don’t “produce” anything. In most large cities the business is mostly involved in manipulating money- borrowing, lending, buying/selling stocks, making decisions for others with money-financial managers, insurance, planning all these operations, executing the business plans and on TA DA! and on.
The current flu has been a huge influence in dispersing people from city centers. The benefit from center city is much less valuable to many people with a grasp and usage of telecommunications. That means simply not needing to sit face to face to negotiate and do business, or maintain records, write proposals etc, and on and on.
The center city population density was also used to “get rid of” non productive people, particularly in nursing homes by stashing flu victims there. That may not have been entirely intentional, but it was effective in reducing overall healthcare costs.
In the past, because of limitations of the existing communication technologies, companies needed to locate close to the companies that provided the services that they need.
Cities have been slowly dying for the last 20 years or so, because the requirement to co-locate is for the most part, gone.
Notice how they dare not mention a tax on German or French holiday.
“higher taxes for savers, ”
Because we don’t want people accumulating wealth, makes them uppity.
More than once Democrats have talked about seizing the money in 401Ks in order to shore up the Social Security trust fund.
They assume without evidence that working on your “passion” is a good thing. Even if no one else in the world gives a damn about your passion.
Apparently the good folks at the German Bank have a passion for screwing up the world.
That is how you manage a revolution…
Democratic capitalism is under threat as increasing numbers of young people view the system as rigged against them.
Well, when they are not taught to think or to seek actual data, they ARE taught to emote, and that emotion is their “truth”, and they are pummeled with the message that the system IS rigged against them, it’s no wonder they have that view.
In the 50s and 60s there were green stamps for savers. Now we have green stamp rewards for big banks for piling on the stupid. The new rewards system could also provide cover for their day job of money laundering etc.
Sounds like a good time to move away from Germany and work from home in your same job, but from another country that has a more equitable tax system and lower electricity prices. Also a good time to change banks, from one that’s advocating unfair taxes, to one that focused on being a bank ,rather than a propaganda arm for regressive left wing politics.