The Cost of Living Crisis (and How to Get Out of It)

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Costas Lapavitsas, James Meadway, Doug Nicholls

Publisher: Verso

Year: 2023

Format: Paperback

Size: 81 pages

ISBN: 9781804293843

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A myth-busting pamphlet that charts a course out of the current cost of living crisis, focusing on Britain's current economic situation

We are living through a cost of living crisis, with interest rate hikes and the prices of everyday consumables and energy bills sky-rocketing. Why is this happening?

Sometimes we are told that wages are too high, or that the government has "printed" too much money or that events far away, such as the war in Ukraine, are solely to blame. The plain argument that high prices go together with high profits, falling wages, and weak production is often distorted and hidden by mainstream commentary in the media and elsewhere.

This plain-speaking pamphlet tells it straight: the big businesses dominating production and distribution make huge profits out of high inflation, while working people lose out. It sets out factual evidence to illustrate that the source of record profits is the fall in real wages as inflation rises.

A large part of the income of working people is being transferred directly into the profits of big business. The pamphlet shows that the deeper roots of the "cost of living crisis" lie in the very low investment and poor productivity growth for many years. The basic steps to resolving the crisis are simple: prices, especially of essentials, must be brought down, and wages, salaries, benefits, and pensions must be increased.

What People Are Saying

"[An] excellent little book." Will Podmore, The Morning Star

"A small book with a mighty big punch ... Closely argued in clear, accessible language, [The Cost of Living Crisis] demolishes the decades-old lie that wage rises are the source of inflation, and backs that case with hard facts." Scottish Socialist Voice

About the Authors

Costas Lapavitsas is Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies and convenor at European Research Network on Social and Economic Policy, and the author of Profiting Without Producing.

James Meadway is Director of the Progressive Economy Forum, and former adviser to the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP.

Doug Nicholls is General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions.

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