Taxes, pensions, wages, energy and more. Here are the economic theories of Elly Schlein
Theses and proposals on energy, work and taxation by Elly Schlein as they emerge from the congressional motion of the new secretary of the Democratic Party
“Social justice and climate justice are inseparable”. Thus began the programmatic motion of Elly Schlein, the document with which she presented herself to the voters of the Democratic Party to convince them to entrust her with the leadership of the Democratic Party. “ We cannot fight inequalities effectively if we do not tackle the climate emergency at the same time , which is both its cause and its effect – he writes -. Because those most affected by the ongoing climate emergency are the most fragile and impoverished by crises, both globally and in our country".
SOCIAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS TRAVEL TOGETHER
The starting point of the new PD secretary is clear. “ Social rights and civil rights are inseparable, those who make hierarchies usually want to deny them both ”. The idea is to build a party that holds these two struggles together with an eye to the "intertwined mobilizations of the new generations who fight together for the climate and against labor exploitation, for rights and to overcome patriarchy".
A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT: REDISTRIBUTION AT THE CENTER
Schlein proposes a "new social contract" to "emancipate people from need" and to " answer the demand for protection of those who have remained on the margins of technological, demographic, social and climatic changes ". The ecological and digital conversion must be accompanied "without leaving anyone behind" and by distributing "economic power, advantages and benefits before taxes and welfare more fairly in order to fight inequalities starting from where they arise". “Redistribution” is the key word in Elly Schlein's economic and social programme. Redistribution of "wealth, knowledge, power, time".
ELLY SCHLEIN: ENCOURAGING TAX PROGRESSIVENESS
The social contract imagined by the new secretary returns to a point that is typical of the "old left": fiscal progressivity . Already provided for in the Constitution, and already present in our legal system, the programmatic document underlines the need to make those who have more contribute more. “The right promises lower taxes for everyone. The "flat tax" as a cornerstone. Amnesties as a way out to be guaranteed always and in any case to those who do not pay their taxes. They are poisoned promises – writes Schlein -. Promises that would aggravate social inequalities, because lowering taxes for the rich means missing out on essential resources to finance public services , starting with those for the poorest. Promises that would further encourage tax evasion, one of the biggest scourges of our country. To make Italy work better, we need to make the tax system more equitable and efficient, because taxes pay for services for the whole community”.
DIVERTING THE TAX BURDEN: FROM WORK TO INCOME
The new secretary of the Democratic Party suggests diverting the tax burden and the way forward is to move it from businesses (and therefore from work) to "income and climate-changing emissions". We need to “ overcome the balkanisation of personal income tax and the proliferation of special favorable regimes ”. He stresses the need to defend two principles of equity "horizontal, whereby equal income must be paid equal taxes" and "vertical, whereby whoever has more must be called upon to contribute more". And then, of course, the fight against tax evasion. “We must make tax evaders pay taxes – through payment tracking, the use of databases and the strengthening of tax agencies – to reduce them on low and middle incomes and invest more in sectors such as health, education, research and development – reads the document -. The tax we want redistributes income and wealth and helps reduce social inequalities ”. Elly Schlein also tackles the issue of large estates which "must be tackled from a redistributive perspective, starting with the alignment of the tax on gifts and inheritances at the level of other large European countries, as proposed by the Inequality and Diversity Forum". This reorganization can also be aimed at "orienting investments towards a vision that accompanies ecological conversion, social transformation, the reduction of social and gender inequalities".
RIGHT TO HOUSING: HELP ALSO FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS
Elly Schlein's program also includes a chapter dedicated to the home, as a fundamental right. “We have to deal with it in all its forms, starting with the revitalization of public housing, with a medium-long term investment plan, leveraging maintenance and urban regeneration interventions with zero soil consumption to also increase the supply of socially rented housing and improve the livability of the urban suburbs – writes the new secretary -. It is necessary to strengthen aid for those who find it most difficult to pay the rent, starting with the refinancing of the Social Rental Fund and the Innocent Arrears Fund, which the Meloni government has canceled ". The theme of the house is also of great interest to the younger generations who find themselves unable to obtain their own independence squeezed by precarious jobs, the impossibility of accessing credit and increasingly expensive rents. “And then innovative and courageous public intermediation policies are needed to recover a part of the vacant private property from the medium and long-term rental market, to increase the availability of rent-reduced housing and respond to the demand of that intermediate range who does not have the requisites for access social housing but cannot live at the high prices of the free market – reads the program -. A housing policy that looks to support young people and their paths to autonomy. And that aims to combine the social and environmental issues, aiming at energy requalification and the creation of energy communities to lower bills and emissions together".
ELLY SCHLEIN: PUT THE JOBS ACT BEHIND
The new secretariat is also thinking of a reorganization of labor legislation that starts from the disavowal of what has been done with the Jobs Act. “We have to change course in labor policies. Clearly turning the page after the errors of the "Jobs Act" and the "Poletti decree" on the facilitation of dismissals and the liberalization of fixed-term contracts – reads the program -. A close fight against precariousness and exploitation is needed, putting an end to downward competition in terms of protection and wages . We need to limit the use of fixed-term contracts starting from those of very short duration, as they did in Spain involving employers' organizations and trade unions, and make stable contracts structurally more convenient for businesses". Self-employed workers also find a place in Elly Schlein's programme. “ VAT-registered, autonomous, professional work is increasingly insecure and fragile – writes the new secretary -. Policies in favor of self-employed workers must also build a new welfare model, both by expanding the traditional measures (maternity, illness, parenthood) in the wake traced by law 81 of 2017, and through the implementation of active employment policy tools and , indirectly, by encouraging the processes of aggregation of professionals". Added to this are workers with "non-standard" employment contracts, i.e. "(term employee, with collaboration contracts, involuntary part-time), which according to the 2022 ISTAT Report concerns almost 5 million employees and the self-employed. First of all, women and young people, those who live in the most disadvantaged areas, migrants, pay the highest price for this situation . Italy is the European country with the highest number of NEETs, young people who do not work, study or seek employment”.
DIGITAL WORK: YES TO THE MINIMUM WAGE
It is time, according to Elly Schlein, to write the new protections for digital work “because it is not acceptable that there are workers like riders without any protection, without the right to insurance, holidays, sickness. We must welcome the European Union's proposal on workers of online platforms in advance, guaranteeing transparency and the possibility of collective bargaining for algorithms and shifting the burden of proof to the platforms for identifying the type of employment relationship, to be presumed subordinate ”. The fight against " poor work " is one of the priorities of the new secretary. “Work and poor must no longer be in the same sentence. The priority is to restore strength to the role of trade unions and to collective bargaining, by approving a law on representation that makes a clean sweep of pirated contracts – he writes – But that's not enough. It is time to also introduce the minimum wage , recognizing everyone the overall economic treatment of the most representative collective agreements and defining, in the sectors with the highest incidence of in-work poverty, a minimum legal threshold shared with the social partners. The approval of a law for the fair compensation of professionals is very important, but the right-wing proposal is wrong, because it has a very limited perimeter and strikes unfair sanctions against underpaid professionals and not defaulting clients. We need to broaden the scope of application and shift the burden of sanctions onto clients”.
ELLY SCHLEIN: OVERCOMING THE FORNERO REFORM
The secretary puts the need to overcome the "rigidity of the Fornero reform" on paper. Starting with the "pensions of the new generations, who often have discontinuous contributory careers and risk a future of poverty". By guaranteeing greater freedom of choice for male and female workers, the new secretary suggests promoting a "generational relay" between older and younger workers, protecting in the first instance "those who have carried out onerous or strenuous work" and "those who are in a of difficulty (making the social APE structural)" and "women (restoring and making the women's option less penalizing, which the Meloni government has greatly weakened)".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/pensioni-salari-energia-fisco-elly-schlein/ on Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:59:14 +0000.