#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 4/n

This is happening in creative industries, in higher education, in literature: the more “content” - a lecture, an article, a role in a film - becomes a commodity divorced from its creators, the less creators themselves are paid and valued; they are workers, labourers like everyone else, the value of whose labour gets extracted by capital.

Capitalism isn’t over, replaced by #technofeudalism as some of claimed; it’s in full swing, in its purest form.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 5/n Adding here a piece a group of us co-wrote at an #anthropology
workshop, on “Understanding Growth”. This was experimental - co-writing on the spot! -, but i do come back to it: we distinguish between“Growth rooted in life” from “growth rooted in numbers”. Capitalism is pure number thinking.

Obviously there are many real experts on all this (Marx, Pikkety for a start), this piece is left field! But just thought of it again in this context.

https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2023/10/26/anthropology-and-degrowth-where-to-next/

Anthropology and Degrowth: Where to Next? - Undisciplined Environments

Why should Anthropology engage with Degrowth, and why should Degrowth engage with Anthropology?  This blog offers a set of reflections around these questions, based on the contributions to the workshop “Anthropology and Degrowth: Deepening the dialogue”.

Undisciplined Environments

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 6/n This is important: in contrast to most other Central Banks, which simply sit out losses, the Bank of England has an indemnity arrangement requiring the Treasury to cover its losses. This has resulted in ÂŁ38-ÂŁ40 billion going in effect from taxpayers to private banks in 2023, and same this year. Adding a second hashtag: #SEEtheOligarchy

FT article only for subscribers, I know (i get it through work). Here screenshots of key passages.

https://on.ft.com/4bUtp80

The Bank of England is misusing its fiscal powers

Unwinding QE must not be allowed to tie the hands of Government

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 7/n Now something different - this really is a rag bag, really just adding things as they come along, occur to me, no careful crafting! Just things that enable you to trace and understand how money flows to the rich, how accumulation works. So here, a piece, with this fantastic map, of second homes in the UK, in #Cornwall in particular. Key arena of widening #WealthGap #Inequality

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/06/were-on-a-cliff-edge-cornish-village-where-52-of-houses-are-not-first-homes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#SEEtheOligarchy

‘We’re on a cliff edge’: Cornish village where 52% of houses are not first homes

Scrapping furnished holiday lets regime will only ‘tinker’ with rentals problem, say people in Polruan

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 8/n Adding here a (somewhat sweary, apologies) Politics Joe interview with Gary Stevenson (see 1/n), talking about the rapid increase in inequality in the UK and the world, and also about how we need to make people SEE THIS. They need to realise that the reason their lives are shit, that they can't get houses, is growing inequality. Because the system is set up to make money flow to the rich. Everyone needs to understand this. #SEETheOligarchy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvoyRpxG-A

The secret economics destroying Britain | Gary Stevenson interview

YouTube

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 9/n So far the has been more about who the money flows towards, but now also some posts about who it flows away from. Again, random collection, no comprensive analysis - just snippets of what’s going on!

Yesterday I listened to this really heartbreaking and deeply worrying programme about the rapid rise in bankruptcies in the UK. Of course we see this all around us - all those closing restaurants, Debenhams etc. the #DeathOfTheHighStreet speeding up

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001x55h?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Dead Company Walking - BBC Sounds

Businesses are failing at a rate not seen for years. What's gone wrong?

BBC
#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 10/n But note the title âŹ†ïž - what is going on here? Turns out quite a bit of of the program was about how “Zombie firms”were kept alive artificially for years by low interest rates; that it’s good if they die and others take over. Really struck and appalled by utter coldness, distance and dehumanisation by people who say this - as @PippiPunkstrumpf just said, they really think of others just as numbers (see also our “Understanding Growth” piece above 5/n).

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 11/n Another key area money flows away from are local councils and social services and, therefore, the young and, again, community. In Birmingham, whose council declared bankruptcy in 2023, provisions for children will be cut by ÂŁ52m in 2024-25 and ÂŁ63m in 2025-26; youth services by ÂŁ2.3m; and eleven community centres are being sold off. As John Harris says:

The state is abandoning its people

#UKPolitics #Birmingham #Austerity

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/17/birmingham-britain-state-cuts-austerity-local-services

Birmingham’s cuts reveal the ugly truth about Britain in 2024: the state is abandoning its people

First it was austerity. Now it’s something even worse: the suggestion that people didn’t need vital local services to begin with, says Guardian columnist John Harris

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”12/n Of course, things were never rosy for everyone. Nevertheless, key shared assumptions about the #commongood informed post war public spending and that is all eroding now.

“Continuing austerity does not just kill people’s services; it has long since warped most political debates about what we should expect from the state. In lots of places, squalor, mess and festering social problems are now seen as the norm. “
#TheCrumble

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 13/n and i have to mention UK universities too, since I am directly affected myself (see #AcademicVenting).

40% of UK universities are in debt, with major reduncancies right now (incl at Goldsmiths). All in arts, humanities and social sciences. All of this is crumbling, with too little money flowing into it. Another industry, another #CommonGood
being eroded. Check out this constantly updated tally. #TheCrumble

https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

UK HE shrinking

a live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 14/n Just realised the title of this really excellent article by Sam Knight is actually perhaps the real theme of this đŸ§”:

What Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule have Done to Britain

As Sam says, #Austerity is not even talked about so much anymore, but it has just broken the #UK . Please do read the whole piece, so well written, so damning (and I’ve even managed to ignore an aside criticism of Corbyn - usually makes me hate any writer! 😊)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/01/what-have-fourteen-years-of-conservative-rule-done-to-britain

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 15/n

“The average worker is now £14,000 worse off per year than if earnings had continued to rise at pre-crisis rates—it is the worst period for wage growth since the Napoleonic Wars. “Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this. This is what failure looks like.” “

A Herefordshire case workers has developed a phrase to describe people needing help, “for her paperwork”:

“Overwhelming Distress”

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 16/n Back to who the money flows towards:

Nobody had a better year than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth has increased by more than any other billionaire, up by nearly $113 billion over the past 12 months, to an estimated $177 billion #AI #Meta

https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/04/02/tech-billionaires-have-added-an-astonishing-750-billion-to-their-fortunes-over-the-past-year/

Tech Billionaires Have Added An Astonishing $750 Billion To Their Fortunes Over The Past Year

The world’s wealthiest technology moguls have ridden the AI-fueled frenzy to never-before-seen heights.

Forbes

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 17/n and here the whole Forbes Rich List for 2024. The planet has a record 2,781 billionaires now who are worth a record $14.2 trillion.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2024/04/02/forbes-38th-annual-worlds-billionaires-list-facts-and-figures-2024/

Forbes’ 38th Annual World’s Billionaires List: Facts And Figures 2024

Here’s who’s up, who’s down, who’s new and who’s off the yearly Forbes billionaires ranking.

Forbes

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 18/n

Spotify too. Everywhere money is being sucked out (or who has the agency here really? More in next post) from artists to billionaires

https://mstdn.ca/@ned/112249803518261424

Ned Yeung (@ned@mstdn.ca)

Attached: 1 image "Spotify’s CEO is now a billionaire but it takes artists 334 streams to make $1. The company just enacted a plan to completely demonetize smaller artists. Under the new policy, tracks that get under a certain threshold of annual streams will receive no money from the company. Groups like United Musicians and Allied Workers (ig: weareumaw) are fighting to save their industry." #Union #capitalism

Mastodon Canada

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 19/n

This is what I am thinking about now. Not at all the first to say this or even think it myself, but just to emphasise: better not to think of billionaires as evil scheming money grabbers - i mean, they are - but as vessels for money, capitalism itself. Like, sci-fi wise, human bodies that look like humans from the outside but have been taken over by an AI - money itself. And it’s ruling everything!

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112251122729288252

Pauline von Hellermann (@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green)

#AcademicVenting That is what this is: we are governed by money itself, and it brings cruel unimaginative rightwing mediocrity to the top everywhere. (Second crossover with #FollowTheMoney đŸ§” here!) Sadly forgotten name just now, (will edit), but remembering podcast with Cambridge prof saying people worry about being ruled by AI , nonhuman entities, but that is exactly what corporations are. Nonhuman entities are already running everything. https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112047945347154458

Mastodon.green

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 20/n

Now really is the time of monsters. #Gramsci

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 21/n Suddenly remembered that at the end of 2022 I posted this here. So embarrassing - cringe, as my children would say! That I actually wrote “the new world is almost born”. No it’s not. The time of monsters is in full, full swing, the new world really is not born yet. All we can do is to keep on trying to organise to make it happen one day. #Gramsci

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109607575259368216

Pauline von Hellermann (@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green)

Attached: 1 image 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Schumacher’s 1973 book #SmallIsBeautiful. Let’s make it a turning point year for everyone recognising that indeed Small Is Beautiful, a year of #Transition towards #CommunityBuilding #Commoning, #Degrowth #AgroEcology #2023 1/5 The new world is almost born

Mastodon.green
#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 22/n Last point and then I will stop for today: saw #Hamilton a few weeks ago and was really struck by how then it was possible to start a revolution, raise an army and WIN! Like, that would just be totally impossible now. The imbalance in military power, just as in wealth (and control over media etc etc) is just so VAST now. It’s impossible to beat. That’s why noone really even tries anymore.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 23/n. Sorry- one more! Just to end on a less bleak note: seeing this toot reminded me that, of course, that billionaire military might AI bleak dystopia is real,IS our world, but there is actually an even bigger reality here every day, in all of us, since forever. Which is that the vast majority of us humans basically just want a simple life, with family, friends, barbecues (ok maybe not perfect example but since it’s here). #FrugalAbundance

https://ohai.social/@archaeohistories/112251349725100974

Archaeo-Histories (@archaeohistories@ohai.social)

Attached: 1 image Stone cooking supports used to grill skewers of meat by Minoans on Santorini, 3600 years old. The line of holes in the base supplied coals with oxygen. Many consider modern "souvlaki" street kebabs a direct descendant of this portable food system. Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Greece #archaeohistories

ohai.social

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 24/n. Like, watching the blue tits busy building their nest in the box outside our kitchen window, feeding their young, flying back and forth: most of us humans are so much closer to them than to scheming billionaires.

And: this forever (i hope forever- in peril due to other!) reality - of birds, trees, parents hugging children, just enjoying being together - this is perhaps the real reality. Or at least always also there. Mustn’t forget!

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 25/n back to a reality most of us in the UK inhabit on a daily basis: the crumbling public sector. Found this report on NHS dentistry’s struggle for survival really very moving just now. #NHS #dentistry #UKpolitics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001y0kf?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

A Dentist's Life - A Dentist's Life - BBC Sounds

How one community dentist is navigating the biggest crisis in dentistry in a generation.

BBC

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 26/n An outstanding review by Will Davies (my Goldsmiths colleague) of Brett Christopher’s “The Price is Wrong”: about our neoliberal political economy (using a Braudelian distinction btw “the market” and “capitalism” - SO useful) and how this explain why investments in fossil fuels continue to vastly outstrip those in renewables. Key point: Capitalism IS rent-seeking.
#ClimateEmergency

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/william-davies/antimarket

William Davies · Antimarket: Capitalism Decarbonised

When it’s capitalism that’s the problem, and not markets, the only alternative is post-capitalism. But the central...

London Review of Books
#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”27/n The piece btw contains a necessary critique of my sci-fi “money rules” take a few posts above. Although i still like the idea of all this being a kind of superorganism. But yes, it is about power - political economy, not just economy.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 28/n But honestly, just read this piece - everything in this đŸ§” in one brilliant analysis. And, crucially, using to explain lack of climate action. This is what everyone, each one of us, needs to think about! “Ecologically speaking, neoliberalism couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

Here Christopher’s book itself:
The Price is Wrong. Why Capitalism Won’t Save The Planet.

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong

The Price is Wrong

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 29/n Another overlap with #AcademicVenting đŸ§”- because it’s all of a piece! Because the crisis in HE is a key phenomenon in all this!

This great piece by Jessica Wildfire really needs to be read in full, but this extract most apt here:

“Universities aren't institutions of knowledge anymore. They're assets. They're revenue streams. If they're not generating money for the top, then they only pose a threat, and they have to be weakened and destroyed.”

https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/112359018143961300

Aral Balkan (@aral@mastodon.ar.al)

“A lot of rich people don’t actually want an education system or the educated population that would come along with it. Sure, it would be better for everyone. But it would also mean having to share, and these people have let their greed literally drive them insane.” https://www.okdoomer.io/im-a-professor-heres-why-im-walking-away-from-my-tenure/ 1/2

Aral’s fediverse server

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 30/n

Wow. As Bregman says: Stunning graph: the plummeting tax rates of the richest Americans. For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.

Look at 1980 - I do continue to think that *everything* could have been different if Carter hadn’t lost to Reagan.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 31/n I think the graph came from this New York Times piece but don’t have a subscription so can’t check.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/03/opinion/global-billionaires-tax.html

Opinion | It’s Time to Tax the Billionaires

Billionaires are experts at avoiding taxes. By banding together, countries can make them pay up.

The New York Times

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 32/n Watched “The Founder” on Netflix yesterday, about McDonalds. Really interesting- would recommend it. Particularly how the real breakthrough came when Kroc, advised by Sonneborn, went for real estate. Checked it on Wikipedia:

“McDonald's present-day real-estate holdings represent $37.7 billion on its balance sheet, about 99% of the company's assets and 35% of its annual gross revenue.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_McDonald%27s

History of McDonald's - Wikipedia

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 33/n

Today an overlap with #ClimateDiary: British farmers are struggling due to climate change, Brexit AND supermarket power:

Most farmers receive less than 1% of the profit made from the food they grow. Of the 20% food inflation experienced by the public a minuscule proportion made its way back to the farmer. Tesco made a £2.3bn profit last year, while 49% of fruit and veg farmers fear they’ll be out of business before the end of this one.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/08/british-farmer-food-climate-crisis-business?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I’m a British farmer. Here’s the scary truth about what’s happening to our crops

The climate crisis is making the farming business unsustainable – and without support for us, food security will suffer too, says Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”34/n #ClimateDiary

We had a veg box for 12 years from Hankham Organics; 3 weeks ago we suddenly had a note with our box that they were closing, as it wasn’t working financially any more. 😱😱😱

And a fish merchant who we got smoked salmon for Christmas from closed this year too, for the same reasons. Plus Goldsmiths’ woes of course (#AcademicVenting). So many good, small organisations struggling and ending.

DB đŸ‡”đŸ‡ž 🌎🌏🌍 (@dbattistella@mstdn.ca)

Attached: 1 image Yeah, why are things... #Prices #News #Corporations #Monopolies

Mastodon Canada

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 36/n Here a positive, progressive use of money flows:

1400+ Columbia University alumni from its 20 schools have pledged to withhold all “financial, programmatic, and academic support” until school meets demands related to divestment, student discipline, and community safety.
Group website says over $63 million of donations at risk. #Gaza #studentprotests

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”37/n

Even though all of us living in the UK know that homelessness is terrible (and has grown exponentially since 2010), it is still shocking to see this graph.

(There are notes on methods: all countries included both rough sleeping and invisible homelessness).

https://www.oecd.org/social/homelessness-country-notes.htm?utm_term=pac&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1-CorporatePriorityContent,2-Recovery%5BSupportingPublicandSocialPolicies%5D,3-ELS&utm_source=twitter

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 38/n

A rare silver lining to severe cuts in local council budgets: for the last few years Eastbourne have stopped spraying our streets and I love this time of year, flowers reclaiming the streets everywhere. #Rewilding #ClimateDiary

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 39/n

Have to add this here. The last 14 years summarised in 4 images #UKPolitics #GE2024

EDIT: here link itself too as images in screenshot i complete

https://x.com/ACORNunion/status/1793934201860792465

ACORN the union (@ACORNunion) on X

The last 14 years summarised in 4 images

X (formerly Twitter)

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 40/n haven’t added anything here in a while - but this needs to be posted!

Trump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top 10

Share surge increases Elon Musk’s fortune by $26bn in a day as Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and Bill Gates also benefit

#USelections2024

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/07/trump-victory-adds-record-wealth-richest-top-10?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Trump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top 10

Share surge increases Elon Musk’s fortune by $26bn in a day as Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and Bill Gates also benefit

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 41/n Ok so the reason for the long pause in this đŸ§” was being made rdundant in July, by my lovely (not) employer of 13 years, Goldsmiths University. You can read all about it in this long #AcademicVenting đŸ§”, tracing the whole sorry saga from first rumblings in Nov ‘23 to the bitter end. But of course, #redundancy is all about money, and I think about money all the time now (I have to), so really should write it about it all here a bit

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/111563234050886278

Pauline von Hellermann (@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green)

Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse. Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities #AcademicChatter #neoliberalism

Mastodon.green
#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”42/n Firstly, I am conscious of my own #redundancy being very much part of the wider hollowing out, draining out of both public services and professional, creative industries everywhere (see many posts âŹ†ïž). I am really scared about this - it’s strange how this is happening but not really talked about; no #unemployment crisis narrative at all, as of course most people, like me, end up not being “unemployed” but doing smaller, precarious jobs; very few of us on benefiso no stats

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 43/n Now of course Elon Musk - having made 2/3 of Twitter staff redundant - has been hired by Trump to head the new “Efficiency Department”. i find this prospect alone deeply, deeply scary - both in terms of public services disappearing and the 1000s who will lose their jobs. As you all know: there is absolutely nothing “efficient” about these kinds of cuts whatsoever. They are deeply destructive, nothing else.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/12/trump-appoints-elon-musk-government-efficiency-department

Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department

Musk and ex-presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head up Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 44/n but also: #Redundancy has made me think deeply (of course!) about the role of money in personal decision making. I may be wrong but it feels like this is something we don’t talk about much, and yet it is is so central to everything! I DO want to talk about it, even if I have nothing insightful to say actually. Just a few observations.

1. Money was at core of my decisions around redundancy. I have two teenage children and a high mortgage.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 45/n

I could not go for lovely 0.5 offered, or for tribunal; I had to opt for enhanced redundancy. If had chosen tribunal route i would have probably been able to keep my job as the 12 who did (who were able to do so due to different financial circumstances) were all reinstalled in an even lovelier deal btw management and union. (The 64 of us eho accepted enhanced redundancy by deadline did not know this would happen).

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 46/n

2. Money is now also so core to all my decision-making in how to spend my time, what jobs to go for - and balancing the need for money with wanting to do good, environmental work, and things I enjoy and am good at. It is quite strange, I gave a lecture at SOAS in Feb this year on “Doing Work You Believe in and be paid for it”, on the very day the Goldsmiths mass redundancies were announced (will see if I can upload recording here)

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 47/n

This was a combination of two papers: one on unpaid Eastbourne climate activism, one on sustainability professionals in the palm oil sector. It is very strange that I gave that lecture and wrote that paper - this is me now! I am out here in the wilderness, having to make a living, and yes, doing consultancy work. Which, of course, as I am rapidly learning, does not have to mean “selling out “ - my current work for the RSPB is really rewarding.

https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/4717/

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 48/n here also a link to the other paper on Eastbourne climate activism, i’ve shared it before but doing so again as it has a brief section on what kind of work is rewarded by high salaries, and what isn’t. I still feel this is an incredibly important topic and not really talked about enough in #ClimateAction circles. Maybe we can talk about it more together here?

https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/2/4/32

From Ecophany to Burnout? An Anthropologist’s Reflections on Two Years of Participating in Council-Citizen Climate Governance in Eastbourne

In July 2019, Eastbourne Borough Council declared a climate emergency and committed to making Eastbourne carbon neutral by 2030. In order to achieve this, citizens together with Council created a unique model of council-citizen collaborative climate governance, the Eastbourne Eco Action Network (EAN). EAN’s main strategy has been the setting up of targeted working groups, each bringing together Councillors, engaged citizens and providers, and each tackling a specific area of climate action through a combination of infrastructure, institutional and behavioural changes. As an environmental anthropologist living in Eastbourne, I was involved in this process right from the beginning, having had my own ‘ecophany’—the realisation that the climate emergency required urgent action—in February 2019. Two years and one pandemic later, in this paper I reflect on the overall experiences and challenges of EAN’s and Eastbourne Borough Council’s work towards town-wide carbon neutrality to date, discussing possible factors (structural and other) determining varying successes and failures. At the same time, this paper provides an auto-ethnographic account of what ‘engaged anthropology’ means in practice, mapping out the real contributions anthropologists can and should make in local climate action, but also reflecting on challenges encountered along the way.

MDPI
#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 49/n Anyway, just to end for today: a huge, HUGE shout out ❀ to everyone on here who works “freelance”, going from one projec to another (more on “projects” and projectification later - so important in itself). I am now realising the immense privilege of a secure job (not secure in my case, as it turned out), where you don’t have to think about where your money will come from in 6 months or whatever. It is a fundamentally different state of being. Everything now existential.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 50/n Today adding this excellent video by @RichardJMurphy on how “the City” is not our “Jewel in the Crown”, as Rachel Reeves put it, but a parasite extracting huge amounts of money for self-enrichment. It does not add any value to the economy.

So important to see the City for what it is.

https://youtu.be/yZYXZR4AXSY?si=YTtLWpLD7wzzt5hd

Do the people who work in the City of London add value?

YouTube

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 51/n Richard’s video has spurred me on to do a few posts now on #PrivateEquity. Long overdue here, because private equity is at the heart of how our world works!

(Just to state again: i am not an expert, just someone who is trying to make sense of our world by #FollowingTheMoney, in an eclectic đŸ§”)

To start with basics: what is private equity? I like this clear definition by Justin Robertson

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563460903288270

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 52/n

The amount of wealth and assets held by private equity is vast. The biggest private equity firm of all is of course #BlackRock, founded by Larry Fink in 1988. Here is a lovely Statistica chart showing how its “assets under management” grew from $1.31 trillion (i mean, not bad) to $10.41 trillion in 2024. Bloomberg predicts they will hit $15 trillion in a few years

https://www.statista.com/statistics/891292/assets-under-management-blackrock/

BlackRock: assets under management 2024 | Statista

Total assets under management (AUM) of BlackRock reached over nine trillion USD

Statista
#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 53/n I have to go now but over the next few days just want to talk about what this means: it means that so much of the world around us - restaurants, care homes, appartment blocks, student accommodation, etc etc, is all owned by private equity; that there is no escape.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 54/n

This article is hard to stomach for all those of us currently looking for work, and not finding anything suitable, or anything at all. But it’s good that at least rising #unemployment is recognised now.

My own #redundancy last year and subsequent struggles have made me so alert to all these wider structural changes; I am really scared that this may be just the beginning. Terrible combination of AI and money going only to the rich

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/feb/10/britons-hunting-for-a-job-uk-jobseekers-pay?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

‘It’s nightmarish’: why 1.5m Britons are still hunting for a job

UK jobseekers say employers are hiring fewer staff, whom they expect to do more for less pay

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”55/n

“Keri said her father had been “powered by unconditional love” but he felt the government took advantage of the nearly 6 million people like him who care for a loved one, saving the taxpayer at least £162bn a year.”

This reminded of a thought I had a while back: how salaries/wages are directly negatively correlated with love.

When you do something you love, or out of love, this is instantly punished by capitalism.

Carers, nursery workers -

https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2025/mar/24/nobody-found-him-in-time-how-neglect-and-stress-led-to-the-deaths-of-a-full-time-carer-and-his-son?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

‘Nobody found him in time’: how neglect and stress led to the deaths of a full-time carer and his son

David Lodge died after being found next to his father and full-time carer Peter’s body. His sister Keri believes the strain of caring and lack of government support contributed to their deaths

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”56/n

- nurses, art gallery workers, conservation NGOs, academics, etc - all these jobs that people do out of love for something/one are poorly paid. Love is exploited. More love = less money.

Only love of money itself and nothing else is rewarded with money (high salaries, bonuses, etc). Maybe not surprising - what do you expect in capitalism - but not much honesty about it. All that neoliberal motivational #Passion talk (“my work is my passion”) - exploitative bollocks.

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”57/n

This LinkedIn post resonates 
 wanted to share here just in case there are others who are in this situation too.

Also one reason I hardly ever add to this đŸ§”any more is that, of course, I am literally trying to #FollowTheMoney, or rather, divert some from somewhere to my bank account😄 #JobSearch #FediHire

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/staggmacey_this-week-a-friend-told-me-theyd-taken-activity-7325917928724336641-LOlX?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAAIt0BkBUaNgLl_2JLMYW8cY32uxAbZO8FY&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=copy_link

This week, a friend told me they’d taken a job with lower pay and a
 | Catherine Stagg-Macey | 158 comments

This week, a friend told me they’d taken a job with lower pay and a smaller title. “It’s not my dream job,” they said. “But I need the money.” My heart ached for him. The last two years have been the hardest I’ve seen in 30 years of watching the job market. Talented people who once had their pick of opportunities are taking lower salaries/titles because they don’t have any choice. This in a world that’s full of  â€œFind your purpose.” And “Do work that lights you up every damn day.” F**k purpose for a minute. There’s no shame in taking the job that feeds your family. There’s no shame in staying in an industry you don’t love if it keeps the lights on. Some of us are just trying to get through the month. And that’s okay. This season won’t last forever. I used to believe I had to “love what I do” every day. That if I wasn’t perfectly aligned with my highest values, I was failing. What a load of privileged bullshit. I once seriously considered selling used knickers on eBay. It was twenty years ago and I was broke and desperate. I never went through with it but it tells you where my head was. To those of you who are between jobs, just remember you more resilient, more adaptable, more courageous than any job title can measure. And this too shall pass. | 158 comments on LinkedIn

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§” 58/n

I think so much about middle class-ness at the moment. More research in news this week how it’s the top 10%, those with incomes over £36,000, who are largely responsible for CO2 emissions; but it’s even more than that; middle-class aspirations shape everything. So conscious of this now as I am so driven in finding work so as not to have to sell our (nice, middle class, highly mortgaged house). Then a friend just sent me this - must read. #ClimateDiary

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”59/n

Meanwhile our lovely king..

Meanwhile also, as I am listening to the radio as I am typing this: yet another horrific attack in northern #Gaza. Another 50 killed, after yesterday’s 80. This is our world.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/16/king-charles-wealth-swells-to-match-rishi-sunak-and-akshata-murty-on-uk-rich-list?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

King Charles’s wealth swells to match Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty on UK rich list

Sunday Times says monarch’s personal fortune has risen to £640m, while that of ex-PM and wife has fallen to that level

The Guardian

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”60/n

“The wealth of the world’s 3,000 billionaires has surged by $6.5tn (£4.8tn) in real terms over the past decade, according to Oxfam, equivalent to 14.6% of global output”

Capitalism is shit.It is by the rich for the rich and destroys everything else in the process. Let’s keep saying it!

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jun/26/billionaires-wealth-oxfam-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”61/n

Just adding this here. A little poll I did a while back!

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/113610652987592955

Pauline von Hellermann (@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green)

So, does anyone on here still believe in capitalism? #Capitalism [ ] Yes [ ] No

Mastodon.green

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”62/n

A key dimension to capitalism’s destructivism is, of course, its complete intertwining with warfare. Here more than anywhere it’s crucial to #FollowTheMoney, as Craig Murray does beautifully in this piece.

Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

#PalestineAction

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/

Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund - Craig Murray

If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again. The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund. Through a chain of [
]

Craig Murray

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”63/n Excellent article by Tim White on how across Europe #privateequity has been buying up significant proportions of housing and driving up rental prices. A key dynamic in growing inequality that contributes to alienation and rise of far-right.

Everything is about #Assets.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/07/europe-financial-sector-house-prices-politics?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#FollowTheMoney đŸ§”64/n The article made me think once again about Monopoly, and how perfectly it captures what the world is like. Originally called “the Landlord Game”, it was invented in 1903 by left-wing feminist Lizzie Magie who wanted to expose how rentier capitalism works through a game. She more than succeeded but - this being capitalist US - never got the credit for it. Interesting piece about it all here.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-origins

#privateequity #Assets #Monopoly

@pvonhellermannn FWIW, Private Eye has been covering this and related privatisation nonsense over the years, but mainstream media seems to have no interest in it.

BTW, will it become a criminal offence in the UK to use the #PalestineAction tag once the terrorist-group designation order is laid before Parliament by the Home Secretary tomorrow? Asking for a friend


@pvonhellermannn easy, they save in ballpens, wages, tax...
@pvonhellermannn Sea drones are comparatively cheap these days, and super yachts have no defenses. Just saying.
@feijoa ! 😂 excellent point!

@pvonhellermannn @xdydx

#FollowTheMoney

$1 million
$1 million
$1 million
$1 million
👇👇👇👇
6 and 1/2 million times

OR

$6,500,000,000,000

@pvonhellermannn Make billionaires extinct.

It's them or us.

@phil_stevens @pvonhellermannn We need to tax them out of existance...

@pvonhellermannn
When I read "enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over", it hits hard that it IS the billionaires causing poverty.

I'm not sure that's stating the obvious or not.

Either way, the billionaires are destroying everything, ultimately including themselves!
This level of wealth has to end, and soon.

@greenpete @pvonhellermannn Taxing the rich is not about ending poverty, but about stabilizing the economy. Stock markets are nowadays basically a Ponzi scheme based on speculation and lot of that wealth is make-believe. Taxing that wealth would keep valuations in realistic level.
@pvonhellermannn
I've been calling it CRAPITLISM 4 yrs❗
@pvonhellermannn but more than thinking, “I should have less,” I prefer to think, “they should have more,” and the 1% should have less. We could all be flourishing but instead our governments and cities are falling apart for their wealth. That’s my understanding
@rpin42 of course. But we can’t all be middle class, leading the lives of those over £36,000. We have to meet somewhere in the middle. But where exactly i don’t know (and yes i know not every middle class person’s footprint is the same; there are significant regional differences for a start).
@pvonhellermannn sustainability at whatever level is the key but £36,000 is just enough. Peak happiness and flourishing sits much higher
 maybe around the £70,000 mark now
 or more precisely the services that amount of money can currently command
@pvonhellermannn 🍀🍀🍀
@pvonhellermannn There's also a perverse normativity in the idea that one's job has to be one's passion that blinds people to their actual alienation. They might feel that something is off but rather than blaming their day-job -something external- they blame themselves for not "feeling it", not "trying hard enough", not really "wanting to succeed", not having the right "mindset" etc. Realizing that one's job is not one's purpose can be liberating. But still, better to have choices of course.
@pvonhellermannn Oh, sorry. I just saw the latest post without seeing the thread. I'm preaching to the converted, and you put it much better.
@DetersHenning Not at all! Nuce to hear you are thinking along these lines, too
@pvonhellermannn Sending a note from the maelstrom of redundancy negotiations. It’s chaotic and you’re right, suddenly the focus on money is acute. Your thread has been so helpful.
@kate security was just thinking about you - how are things going for you? Finally put notifications for your posts yesterday- sorry, I probably missed quite a lot
@pvonhellermannn It’s chaotic and sad, the communications are erratic and inconsistent, and everyone is exhausted. I’m in a calm situation as I have choices. But it’s a case study in a terrible way to treat others.