As biologists Drew Weissman and Katalin Kariko were awarded their Nobel Prize this week, another story was playing across UK media. For at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, a curious little woman called Liz Truss popped up to harangue delegates about how massive tax cuts would fuel the spirit of entrepreneurship, lubricate the animal spirits of the hedge fund managers, and generally produce economic growth. At first we struggled to identify who Truss was, but it seems she may have fleetingly been Prime Minister or something. But we think her prescription mistaken, however often rehearsed in any number of well-funded lobby groups. Because she is missing the point.
Let’s go back to 2020 and remember how COVID-19 was sweeping through the world, claiming tens of thousands of lives and causing immense economic damage. [1] It’s hard to be precise, but $11 trillion might be a good first estimate. What gave us hope? The development of vaccines. What brought the epidemic under control? The development of vaccines, especially the mRNA ones which Weissman and Kariko did so much to create.[2] Once again, how much money did they save for the world? And how much did they generate by getting the economy moving again?
The mistake is to confuse money with wealth. People like hedge fund managers, bond traders are rather good at moving around money that already exists, arbitraging tiny profits here, selling bonds there. But did they contribute anything to ending the pandemic? To take the argument one stage further, the biggest leap in human wealth was the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century. It wasn’t the money men who did it. It was the pioneering work of early engineers and scientists like Watt and Priestly who made the key discoveries, and manufacturers like Boulton who put them into action. It is breakthroughs in Science and Technology that create the step changes in wealth. The activities of testosterone driven alpha males like The Wolf of Wall Street are peripheral at best, and often downright obstructive. We need less trading floors. And to pay for more Universities. And the recognition that taxes as investment are a good thing.
[1]https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/economic-cost-covid-global-preparedness-monitoring-board/
[2]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/02/scientists-whose-work-enabled-mrna-covid-vaccine-win-nobel-prize-for-medicine-katalin-kariko-drew-weiss
#nobel prize #mRNA #vaccine #Covid-19 #The Wolf of Wall Street #wealth
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