It was easy for Osborne to deride Clegg's latest brainwave in favour of a "temporary wealth tax".
Not due to its ridiculously low 0.5% level - for Osborne, even this is too high. But because the Lib-Dems have consistently supported the coalition's tax cuts and other handouts to companies and the rich, while endorsing its public sector and welfare cuts against the working class.
Obviously, this "wealth tax" is just political posturing, which has nothing to do with Clegg "seeing the light", but everything to do with his party's electoral standing and his political future.
Let them go, but empty handed!
More significant, however, is the furore generated by the mere reference to a wealth tax, both in the media and among politicians.
Predictably, Osborne warned against "driving away the wealth creators and the businesses that are going to lead our economic recovery." Which "wealth creators"? Shareholders? Bankers? Boardroom fat cats? As if the only origin of their wealth wasn't the value we created with our labour and sweat! Why should anyone be worried about the whereabouts of these people?
Take Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, one of the world's largest advertising companies. Just after Clegg's announcement, Sorrell was interviewed by the BBC (surely not a coincidence given its Tory slant!), saying that, having been reassured by Osborne's tax plans, he was considering "moving back" to London.
Back in 2008, Sorrell had "fled" to Dublin, in protest against Labour's "excessive taxes". However, WPP's financial headquarters remained in Britain - in Jersey, in fact. Being located in this very British tax haven, WPP never paid much tax anyway. So the whole charade about WPP "fleeing" London and "moving back" is just a farce!
As to relying on the wealthy to "lead our economic recovery", well we've already seen what it means. Not only did they cause the crisis 5 years ago, but all they've done since has been to take advantage of the crisis to boost their profits - by cutting jobs and wages even further and refraining from making any socially useful investment.
So, no, we don't need these parasites. As far as the interests of the working class are concerned, they can go to hell, lock, stock and barrel. Good riddance! Only, if they do go, we'll make sure that they keep no control over their assets here - which we can do, because the difference between these capitalists and us is that we can run their factories, services and offices without them, whereas they can't make any profit without our labour!
Taking the money where it is
While jobs and production keep going down, this country is awash with wealth - easily enough to meet the needs of all its inhabitants and many more.
Over the past 2 years, however, taking inflation into account, wages have gone down by 7%. Two jobs in ten are now low-paid - against one in ten in the 1990s. The proportion of the wealth produced in the country which goes into wages is shrinking - a trend which started long ago, under Blair, thanks to his encouraging the explosion of casual employment.
Whatever the coalition's unemployment figures may say, its own statistics show that there are now a record 47% of households with at least one jobless member. No amount of harassment of the unemployed, whether using compulsory unpaid work or withdrawing their benefits, including when they are disabled, will conceal the fact that unemployment is rising due to a shortage of jobs.
Yet tens of billions of cash are sitting idly, in the coffers of the banks and large non-financial companies, just waiting for an opportunity to make a quick buck through some form of speculation. Many more billions have been given away to shareholders since the beginning of the crisis in order to sustain the level of share prices.
But these dozens, probably hundreds of billions are merely the accumulated profits that the capitalist class has stolen from us, by exploiting our labour. Why shouldn't we claim our right over this wealth that we have created - and all the more so today, in the middle of a crisis for which we have no responsibility?
The real issue today is not whether there should be a 0.5% wealth tax. It is whether the capitalist class should be made to pay collectively, using whatever means necessary, for the mess they've created - by paying decent wages to all, sharing out all available work between all available hands (in and out of work) and providing the resources to pay for the public services which are needed to cater for everyone's needs. Only the working class has the means to ensure that they do, by exercising its collective control at every level of the economy.