It’s printing money that causes inflation

HOW can the CEO of Sainsbury’s nearly triple his pay, from £1.3 million to £3.8 million, while public sector workers and other low to middle earning workers, like nurses, teachers, doctors, rail workers, police, firemen, etc, get pay cuts after inflation?

How is it that financial services personnel earn far more than inflation by shifting figures around on a screen, while nurses, etc, risk their lives but need foodbanks?

How is it that those who own assets can earn millions per year without working and pay next to no tax? Most of all, how is it that only the low to middle earners are told to have realistic expectations and take effective pay cuts, in the national interest, so that inflation does not get worse? CEOs, or billionaires, or MPs, or other high earners, are never told that.

During Covid, the high earners flourished. The Sunday Times Rich List shows how more millionaires and billionaires were created, and how existing ones became over 20%, on average, richer. That happened because of printing money – quantitative easing to fund the furlough scheme. Printing money causes inflation, and the rich to get richer, but the pretence here is that it’s all caused by Covid and Ukraine.

If fairly small levels of tax were levied on the 1% of highest earners – money they could easily afford to forego – a huge amount of money would be raised and many of the problems of the cost of living would be much alleviated.

But no. The idea of the rich paying their fair share is heresy. One rule for them, another for the rest of us.

Dilys Morgan Scott Torquay, Devon