There are so many lies told by the establishment to keep us down, distracted and divided. They need us to believe these lies so they can continue to exploit us. The following is a collection of lies from throughout this blog, in one place for easy reference. 

 

Meritocracy

 

Rich and successful people are not better than you, they necessarily didn’t get to where they are because they are smarter or work harder. They probably got to where they are due to a lucky accident of birth. 

 

We are supposed to live in a meritocracy- meaning that everyone has the same opportunities in life. The differences in the amount of power or success we have is due to our individual skills, talents and drive. The harder you work, the more successful you will be. But this is totally untrue. 

 

Meritocracy in society doesn’t exist. The most important jobs are not being done by the best people. The most successful people are not the smartest or hardest workers. 

 

If we lived in a true meritocracy, where talent and hard work were the only factors into success we wouldn’t need elite education. Parents wouldn’t need to use their connections to get their children in the door of big companies and media outlets, for example. Their superior work ethic, wise choices and talent would be enough. 

 

If private education and Oxbridge created elite people, how do you explain the appalling standards of the current Conservative cabinet, for example? In reality, the rich can parachute their kids into success for positions they do not deserve and are not capable of doing. Which is why we always see them fail upwards.

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There is no magic money tree

 

Public services have gotten so much worse in the past two decades and there is a much smaller safety net for people who need it. But this is not because there’s no money.

When government underfunds schools, the NHS, social care etc, their excuse is that “there is no magic money tree” But there is a magic money tree: it’s the small number of super wealthy people who have more money than they could conceivably spend and big corporations who make more profits than they know what to do with. 

 

Someone has to fund how the country is run. Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden. If they pay in more, they’ll get a bit poorer, but they’ll still be rich. If we make up the difference, and we get poorer, the consequences are far bigger. 

It's funny that all the people that say taxing the rich wouldn't work: the media, politicians and big business owners, also happen to have the most to lose from us doing it. 

Those who say there is no magic money tree and are motivated by making life better for the majority, they are motivated by making life better for themselves and will tell these lies to get away with it. 

[Welfare for the wealthy] outlines all the ways in which the rich do not pay tax in the same way we do, in the same portion of their wealth. This is why we are poorer. 

 

The rich pay their fair share

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It is argued that rich people already pay their fair share. The top 1% of earners paid 29% of income taxes in 2021/22.  

But this is deliberately misleading. It only accounts for income tax, and not the other sources of income that wealthy people have that the majority of people do not. 

[tax receipts 2021/22]

The wealthy, therefore, pay a far lower portion of their wealth in taxes than those who are not already very rich. The ethos behind low tax for the rich is that it is not fair to punish hard working rich people. Apparently low taxes incentivises hard work and ingenuity. So why is it that people who work pay the most tax, when those who got lucky and things they bought went up in value, or people that inherit stuff pay the least?

Politicians and journalists know the wealthy have many other streams of incomes. So why misrepresent the facts so obviously unless they are hiding something? 

 

Striking workers are against hard working people

 

The government and the media pit “hardworking members of the public'' against nurses, rail workers, ambulance drivers (whoever it may be) if these people are not also hard working members of the public. They put a wedge between those that are striking and everyone else, even though we are one in the same, with the same struggles.

 

Wage rises cause inflation

 

A key argument of the Government is that giving people pay rises would cause inflation. This is because rising wages would cause companies to have to put prices up in order to maintain profits which would cause a “wage price spiral”

However, this is a lie.

According to research by Oxfam, a major cause of inflation is the greed of big corporations, whose excess profits were the cause of at least half of inflation in the UK. So why are we being manipulated to think otherwise? 

Wages have not increased in real terms in the UK in over ten years. If wages caused inflation prices would have stood still for the last 15 years, but we all know they haven't. Therefore wages are not the cause of inflation. 

The other argument against this lie is that many of the workers that are striking throughout 2022 and 2023 are public sector workers. However these sectors such as education, the NHS etc are free at the point of use. So increasing their pay would not cause prices to go up.  To pay for it, they could tax profits on energy companies, for example, but they have refused.

Rather than the government supporting ordinary workers to get what they deserve, they instead paint a picture that nurses, paramedics, for example, who are leaving the profession in droves due to poor pay and conditions, need to be sacrificial lambs for the economy. CEOs have had inflation-keeping pay rises, as have politicians who got a £2,200 pay rise in April 2022. So why can't the key workers that helped the country all through the pandemic? 

 

There is too much regulation, and this is bad for you

 

Governments often talk about “cutting red tape” and see regulation as a hindrance that prevents companies from making money.

 

This is technically true, but what regulation does is protect the safety of workers. Examples of important “red tape” includes maximum working time, rest break entitlement, paid annual leave, health and safety protections and pregnancy/parental rights.

 

Not only does regulation protect workers it also protects the public at large. For example, it prevents the emissions of factories which prevents the amount of pollution corporations can produce, protecting lives. 

 

When governments make decisions to reduce regulation, who benefits? There is no benefit to the workers for working rights being rolled back, or our local environments being affected. The only benefit if for corporations who want to maximise profit. We need to be sceptical when politicians talk about “cutting red tape”- it doesn’t always mean pointless bureaucracy, it can also mean loosening reins of corporate greed to allow for more profit to be made at the rest of our expense. 

 

People just don’t want to work

 

Discussions of “generational worklessness” is a lie of politicians and the media and is a classic divide and conquer tactic. While we are manipulated to be angry at people on benefits, we are not getting angry at the handouts the super wealthy are getting or the massive tax breaks they are allowed to have which makes life worse for us all. 

 

But despite all the evidence, politicians still peddle the lie that it is those who are on benefits that are society’s biggest problem. Firstly, there are almost no examples of generations of families who have never worked

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Over 40% of people on benefits are in work. Most benefits supplement low-incomes or support people who cannot work. Governments and the media cannot complain about people being workshy and then also boast about having record-high levels of employment (even if it’s a lie). 

It is undeniable that poverty causes many problems in society. But there are many factors that have caused poverty, as we’ve seen in Profit over People and Welfare for the Wealthy. In one of the richest countries in the world, there is no excuse for anybody to live in poverty- it’s a political choice. 

The media play a big role in this, who have been making a spectacle of people in benefits for years. It is interesting that there are so many features in newspapers or TV segments about poor people, but never on those who avoid tax- who are a far bigger problem for society. 

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The NHS has had more funding than ever

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Spending on the NHS has went down under the current Conservative government.