At the start of this month, Nigel Farage openly stated that “the Government should consider cutting the minimum wage for young people” from its current £10 hourly rate “to raise aspiration and boost business”. Simultaneously, he criticised raising taxes on the wealthy, claiming that the UK is “suffering a wealth drain,” with an exodus of its biggest employers, investors, and spenders. The hypocrisy is painfully clear.
Though some might see Reform wanting to massively cut taxes as a counter-balance to the minimum wage issue, Farage has said that the cuts “are not realistic at this current moment in time”. And it’s very understandable why they wouldn’t be, considering the UK’s economic struggles post-Brexit. But this begs the question, if he recognises (regardless of his reasoning) that the government is struggling financially, what could possibly make him think that the lowest earners aren’t facing the same repercussions, and that these won’t be worsened by cutting their incomes? The answer: he knows and doesn’t care.
Although this specific declaration by Farage is only referring to wages for 18-20 year olds, we should be seeing it as one in a bigger scheme of his dangerous socio-economic ideas in which he panders to rich elites and aims to weaken and further impoverish the economically vulnerable. For instance, Farage makes a clear distinction between young minimum-wage workers and ‘young professionals’ “earning more than £100,000 a year,” wherein he wants to further restrain the funds of the former and cut taxes for the latter. Overarching this classist prejudice has been his party’s long-term desire to cut welfare and public spending, on which a big portion of low-income people in the UK, beyond just 18-20 year olds, crucially depend.
His argument that minimum wage cuts would motivate young people to work stems from a much broader (and false) narrative of ‘lazy’ and ‘undeserving’ groups of the population leeching off of state welfare and other peoples’ hard-earned tax money. In this framework that baselessly equates lesser economic stability with ‘laziness,’ poorer people are resented and expected to endure stressful and exhausting conditions. They must strain to surpass them to earn the privilege of a higher income. But the true iniquity here lies in the fact that being poor isn’t just about a lack of material goods; it’s also about a lack of time. Because when you’re worrying about how to pay for basic necessities like food and rent, you don’t have the time to embrace your passions, or invest, or build a business to become rich, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Farage’s ideas are dangerous because they promote these harmful attitudes that are already embedded in our society. On a cultural level, we need to start accepting that people thrive and can become their most productive when their basic needs are fulfilled. Governments don’t need the minority of rich elites to stay in their countries to create value and flourish; they need an economically secure working class.
“Nigel Farage” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Farage on Minimum Wage: Widening the Wealth Gap
At the start of this month, Nigel Farage openly stated that “the Government should consider cutting the minimum wage for young people” from its current £10 hourly rate “to raise aspiration and boost business”. Simultaneously, he criticised raising taxes on the wealthy, claiming that the UK is “suffering a wealth drain,” with an exodus of its biggest employers, investors, and spenders. The hypocrisy is painfully clear.
Though some might see Reform wanting to massively cut taxes as a counter-balance to the minimum wage issue, Farage has said that the cuts “are not realistic at this current moment in time”. And it’s very understandable why they wouldn’t be, considering the UK’s economic struggles post-Brexit. But this begs the question, if he recognises (regardless of his reasoning) that the government is struggling financially, what could possibly make him think that the lowest earners aren’t facing the same repercussions, and that these won’t be worsened by cutting their incomes? The answer: he knows and doesn’t care.
Although this specific declaration by Farage is only referring to wages for 18-20 year olds, we should be seeing it as one in a bigger scheme of his dangerous socio-economic ideas in which he panders to rich elites and aims to weaken and further impoverish the economically vulnerable. For instance, Farage makes a clear distinction between young minimum-wage workers and ‘young professionals’ “earning more than £100,000 a year,” wherein he wants to further restrain the funds of the former and cut taxes for the latter. Overarching this classist prejudice has been his party’s long-term desire to cut welfare and public spending, on which a big portion of low-income people in the UK, beyond just 18-20 year olds, crucially depend.
His argument that minimum wage cuts would motivate young people to work stems from a much broader (and false) narrative of ‘lazy’ and ‘undeserving’ groups of the population leeching off of state welfare and other peoples’ hard-earned tax money. In this framework that baselessly equates lesser economic stability with ‘laziness,’ poorer people are resented and expected to endure stressful and exhausting conditions. They must strain to surpass them to earn the privilege of a higher income. But the true iniquity here lies in the fact that being poor isn’t just about a lack of material goods; it’s also about a lack of time. Because when you’re worrying about how to pay for basic necessities like food and rent, you don’t have the time to embrace your passions, or invest, or build a business to become rich, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Farage’s ideas are dangerous because they promote these harmful attitudes that are already embedded in our society. On a cultural level, we need to start accepting that people thrive and can become their most productive when their basic needs are fulfilled. Governments don’t need the minority of rich elites to stay in their countries to create value and flourish; they need an economically secure working class.
Blame it on the rain (and the climate crisis)
“Nigel Farage” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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