Most of the main Green policies are terrifying

Nor should you.. but joining a terrorist organisation or campaigning in support is beyond thought and into action, from there you are only a few steps to taking violent action.



Your later point is largely irrelevant since we've firstly not extracted resources from anywhere below 2km underground and secondly because we are already seeking alternatives in space.

Resources right now are finite but finite for coal for example is several centuries worth. It's entirely probable that before the century is out, we will have moved to a system of abundance.

Not at all. Just demonstrating zero growth economy doesn't work. You need growth to employ new people coming into the job market.

Because part of the job of the government should be to balance the books, and you can only implement so much taxation. All borrowing does is defer the debt, that means that we will be paying for it and not our parents and grandparents. We pay for their irresponsibility

Well they could definitely implement more taxation than they are now. Don't think the current government are borrowing any less because they say the economy is growing. If you increase public spending, which increases employment, those people are then earning and can pay greater amounts of tax, thus in the long run balancing the books. All austerity does is reduce spending, but massively reduce the tax intake. The economy grows for the 1% and corporations essentially receiving welfare payments through tax cuts. We will continue to pay for their irresponsibility, until we realise that there can be a different way of doing things. Otherwise, just sit around and wait for the next financial crash to happen, as inequality grows greater and greater.

Jobs in the public sector generate money? Ummm, how high is their tax exactly? Which is cheaper for the taxpayer: 10k of benefits, or £15k of wages, of which only £1k is recovered in additional taxes (well, you could argue more from other sources, but certainly not 5k)? An unnecessarily large public sector does little but make your employment (well, you could argue strictly unemployment) figures look nicer.

It can definitely work at a local level, where people share out resources of energy and food. It's perfectly possible with government decentralisation. We don't have a choice, the economy can't grow forever. Resources are finite.

Fatality. Neil at his best, albeit it's not too hard to make the Greens squirm when you hold them to account for budgets.

Fatality. Neil at his best, albeit it's not too hard to make the Greens squirm when you hold them to account for budgets.

I literally spat out my drink at that £72 a week for everyone, wtf is that...why...what? I mean you'd probably look better phrasing it as a tax cut (make it only available to tax payers since benefits given to those who aren't would already be over £72), but then....the greens should via ideology be wanting a high Scandinavian tax model.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people don't realise that infinite economic growth breaks the laws of physics. Zero growth is inevitable - it is literally impossible to carry on growing forever. The only sustainable society is a zero growth society

Universal basic income.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income

It can definitely work at a local level, where people share out resources of energy and food. It's perfectly possible with government decentralisation. We don't have a choice, the economy can't grow forever. Resources are finite.

It can definitely work at a local level, where people share out resources of energy and food. It's perfectly possible with government decentralisation. We don't have a choice, the economy can't grow forever. Resources are finite.

It never ceases to amaze me how Greens confuse the two very basic concepts of resource consumption and economic growth, and erroneously conclude they are the same thing.

How anyone other than a complete moron could conflate the two is a mystery

And how are the Greens going to meet the 280 billion a year cost of the "Citizens Income"?

That of course leaves aside the fact that the Greens have said they will abolish all other benefits, leaving many of society's most vulnerable people far worse off than they were previously.

Eh? What benefits give people more than £288/month?

At first I thought this idea was horrendous but on further inspection it makes a great deal of sense. Removing the benefits themselves isn't the money saver, the enormous reduction in administrative costs is. Bennett said something about the administration for childcare benefit being about 100x the cost of the benefit itself.

Eh? What benefits give people more than £288/month?

.

Eh? What benefits give people more than £288/month?

At first I thought this idea was horrendous but on further inspection it makes a great deal of sense. Removing the benefits themselves isn't the money saver, the enormous reduction in administrative costs is. Bennett said something about the administration for childcare benefit being about 100x the cost of the benefit itself.