Public financing and stopping the private sector is uniquely key to saving democracy

We can draw four conclusions from the chapters in this book. First, financial resources are there but are being extracted and wasted by a very small and very privileged minority. Second, private finance is much more expensive than public finance when it comes to public services and infrastructure. Third, despite privatization, there is still a considerable volume of public finance available, in particular in the form of public banks. Fourth, as long as public finance is mobilized for private profits rather than public benefit, a just transition towards energy democracy will fail. So, if we know what we are up against and what is needed to fight the climate crisis, how do we envisage finance and money systems that make sure we get there? Our vision for transforming money and finance rests on two pillars. The first is a politics of finance for the 99 per cent in which public and democratically accountable finance is used to invest in water, health care and education as well as ecologically sound industries. The second is a politics of public money in which governments do not borrow from private banks, but rather use their democratic power to spend money directly in the real economy and retrieve the surplus expenditure, also known as a ‘budget deficit’, through progressive taxation. This, in combination with building international tax justice, could effectively liberate society from the shackles of debt and financialization. We value the decades of work done by the worldwide Tax Justice Network, whose members have put tax evasion and avoidance on the political agenda and with this book, we wish to complement these efforts. With this new vision we aim to spark hope and nurture alliances, as they provide a basis for fleshing out radical and viable money, tax and finance models that can help us build the future we want. Moreover, the following real-world examples that have withstood neoliberalism reveal that economic alternatives have always been there. Now it is up to all of us to ensure that they will take root and take over, everywhere.