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.
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.