Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

First, reframe the purpose of taxes to help build social consensus for the kind of higher-tax, higher-returns public sector that has been a proven success in many Scandinavian countries. And remember, the verbal framing expert George Lakoff advises, to choose your words wisely: don’t oppose tax relief – talk about tax justice. Likewise, the notion of public spending is often used by those who oppose it to evoke a never-ending outlay. Public investment, on the other hand, focuses on the public goods – such as high-quality schools and effective public transport – that underpin collective well-being.57 Second, end the extraordinary injustice of tax loopholes, offshore havens, profit shifting, and special exemptions that allow many of the world’s richest people and largest corporations – from Amazon to Zara – to pay negligible tax in the countries in which they live and do business. At least $18.5 trillion is hidden by wealthy individuals in tax havens worldwide, representing an annual loss of more than $156 billion in tax revenue, a sum that could end extreme income poverty twice over.58 At