Tories and Whigs – a conversation with my grandson

One of the great privileges of old age is that I can have heated discussions with my thirteen year old grandson that remind me of myself as a thirteen year old, except that my grandson is a true Tory while I was a staunch communist. My grandson was delighted with the Tory electoral victory in the UK. This laid down a challenge for me to present a contrary view. By nature I am a contrarian who enjoys a good argument. So I put to him that the libertarian ethos that underpins the values of the British Conservative Party, and generally conservative politics the world over is founded on a Protestant world view, a direct link to God who rewards hard work, sober living and frugality with worldly riches. This ethos of individualism is contrary to the basis of civilization. Civilization is based on the cooperative efforts of the whole society. It is the belief that the greatest good for all is paramount. Greed is bad. The myth is that capitalism rewards the efforts of the hard working individual, but in reality no matter how hard an individual works his rewards will never match the rewards of someone with a little capital to invest who buys a house in Auckland or London and on-sells it six months later making a huge profit, which then he can reinvest in similarly profitable ventures. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn't make their obscene fortunes by sheer hard work but by monopolistic business strategies and by blocking or limiting competition. Aggregating wealth in the hands of a tiny minority is bad for the economy. Spread wealth across the earnings of 'hard working individuals' it is spent and benefits the whole economy, but in the hands of the super-rich wealth either lies idle or is spent on frivolity, super-yachts, luxuries with inflated values, and of course on political clout to enshrine their privileged position. Politicians on the left should concentrate on addressing income inequality, and achieving a more equitable distribution of the wealth through fairer taxation, taxing not only the hard-working individual but also taxing income generated by speculative profits and those earned  from the benefits of social infrastructure. I suppose that to achieve this they have to re-think the basis of taxation and welfare distribution. The fact that at present, with libertarian thinking holding sway, such measures may be political unpalatable doesn't mean that they should not form part of the political debate.