The prevailing culture of subservience and powerlessness in British businesses benefits only shareholders according to doctoral student Daniel Chandler. Chandler claims that workplace democracy benefits both companies and employees at all levels and proposes that UK businesses allocate half their board seats to worker reps, something already established in Germany and France. Anti-establishment sentiments could be ameliorated by empowering workers, said Chandler. He recommends laws to limit the size of cooperative organisations to ensure worker investment remains and calls for a debate about power in UK companies. Chandler's ideas have been endorsed by figures such as economists Thomas Piketty, Amartya Sen, and Sir Angus Deaton.
The coronavirus pandemic has created the opportunity to test the theory that the forgiveness of student loans could boost economic growth, consumer spending, close racial wealth gaps in the US and improve household balance sheets. However, research indicates that a pause on government-owned loans that occurred last year as part of COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts (and is still in place) ended up doing little to help delinquencies on other types of debt. People who didn't have to make payments on student loans had more disposable income, but they also ended up with higher student loan balances — about $1,500 more — as they weren't making payments to reduce the principal. When student loan payments were paused, credit scores were on average a bit higher but household indebtedness deteriorated. It seems that policies can work in one area and fail in another, and that people do not always behave in ways policymakers expect.
