‘It is time for a balanced environmental budget with action on climate change to avoid ecological bankruptcy.’ Presenting his Alterna-tive Mansion House speech at the Glaziers Hall in London, the New Economics Foundation’s Andrew Simms said, ‘It’s time for the government to get radical with social investment and sustainable local economics. Time to create a vision of an environmental war economy.’
The New Economics Foundation’s Alternative Chancellor, Andrew Simms, presenting his alternative budget

Three proposals, at the heart of the speech seek to reconnect economic policy with the real world:
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‘I want to refashion the reward system, in our working lives, that currently allows poverty and excess to co-exist; to reshape our top companies so that the arm of business is properly attached to the body of society, and restore balance to the environment that we all, including the City, depend on’, said Mr. Simms.

Big Business has become an affront to democracy ñ it embodies power without responsibility or accountability and it’s in the interest of business and society at large to deal with this democratic deficit. Proposing a maximum wage limit, the Alternative Chancellor said a voluntary limit on top salaries of £1 million pounds a year would be politically feasible as well as morally and socially desirable. The aim would be to make a point about social coherence: that we as a society recognise our mutual interdependence.

‘Over 100 years ago, business guru J.P. Morgan said that no company should have a differential between highest paid and lowest paid greater than 10. But these days, to earn the same over the next twelve months as a director at Morgan Stanley, who can hope to make £2 million a year, someone on the minimum wage would have had to start work early in the morning some time in 1789!

‘Francis Bacon said, Money is like muck, no good unless it be spread’. But globally we are getting worse at spreading money around. In fact the equality gap is growing. Between the top and bottom fifth, the gap has grown from 3:1 in the early 19th century to 30:l in 1960, to nearly 80:1 now.’

Mr. Simms concluded that his proposals were not really alternative at all. ‘Without them we cannot end social division, defend democracy or finally, preserve a habitable planet.’ The full speech is available on www​.neweconomics​.org
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