Politics Weekly podcast: What do the rich owe society? the stock ...

Twenty economists wrote to the Financial Times this week to argue that the 50% rate of tax paid by the wealthiest 1% of people (whose earnings exceed ?150,000) was harming the country?s economic recovery. The result has been a reawakening of the long-running debate on how much the richest should contribute to society and in what form they should do so.

In this week?s podcast Anne Perkins visits the booming luxury boutiques of Mayfair, where the nation?s hedge fund workers ply their trade. Austerity is nowhere to be found in Berkeley Square at least.

Anne hears from Dr Madsen Pirie of the free market thinktank the Adam Smith Institute; from Labour?s Chris Leslie; from Faiza Shaheen of the New Economics Foundation and from Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands, an expose of modern tax havens.

Justin Cartwright is author of one of the year?s most critically acclaimed satirical novels Other People?s Money which is set in the upper reaches of London society in the aftermath of the credit crunch. He says Britain is unrecognisable now from the country he moved to from South Africa.

The battle over how the country?s economy can be put back on a sound footing is set to dominate the party conference season. With growth rates apparently flat, the money will have to come from somewhere.

The super-rich continue to threaten to leave Britain for lower tax havens. Others argue that there is a lack of incentive to expand their business in Britain if the government is taking such a large slice of their income.

The Guardian?s Tom Clark says it will be difficult territory for all three party leaders in the coming months ahead.

Leave your thoughts below.

Anne Perkins

Phil Maynard

Tom Clark

Deborah Hargreaves

Madsen Pirie

Chris Leslie

Nicholas Shaxson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/audio/2011/sep/08/politics-weekly-podcast-wealthy-50p-tax

Source: http://globaldailybusiness.com/business-news/7361-politics-weekly-podcast-what-do-the-rich-owe-society/

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