radiofree.asia

‘Progressive landlord’ embarrasses himself on social media

Founder of ‘Progressive Property’ Rob Moore has embarrassed himself on social media. Jumping to the aid of rich people, he tweeted:

Rob Moore: big fail

There are two main strands of failure in Rob Moore’s post.

First, economists, campaigners and MPs are calling for a wealth tax on assets and passive income. Not to increase income tax on working people. It’s no wonder Moore is conflating the two, given he advocates for landlords who do not work but collect free money. A 2% wealth tax on assets above £10m would raise over £20bn per year. It’s not a tax on work.

That said, second, Moore’s argument doesn’t even make sense on its own terms. The UK has many regressive taxes such as council tax and VAT that apply to the poorest at the same rate as the richest. That means the least well off 10% of the country pay 48% of their income in tax, compared to the richest 10% that pay only 39% of their income in tax.

In such a thread, one could also re-calibrate Rob Moore’s tweet as follows:

In a democracy, a £25k earner allows another worker to earn six times more than them at £150k. Still, that lower income worker allows the high income worker to only pay back one-third of it in tax, still leaving him with four times as much

The Orwellian ‘Progressive Property’

It’s not just that, but Rob Moore’s company, which helps people take on buy-to-let mortgages, is a paradox.

There’s nothing progressive about becoming “financially free” through extracting money from working people and depleting the available housing. It harks back to a neoliberal’s childish concept of freedom. We should be maximising the freedom of individuals, true. But that doesn’t work when a handful of ‘asset’ owning individuals base their freedom on significantly more people being chained to high rents. That tips the balance towards slavery with extra steps, not freedom.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

This post was originally published on Canary.