If big business is to thrive, it needs a strong welfare state | Phil McDuff

The entrepreneurial spirit cannot flourish if people don't feel valued, rewarded and, above all, sheltered from severe economic turbulence

Unleash the power of markets and the private sector will deliver returns that raise everyone's living standards: that's the market liberalism argument. However, for a decade now we have been living in a world where the opposite is true. GDP rises but wages shrink. The financial crisis was 10 years ago but austerity looks set to continue into the middle of the next decade, as we endlessly wait for the recovery that's always round the corner.

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, berated Labour during his budget speech for wanting to "saddle our children and burden our future", but young people who entered the jobs market in 2010 will be in their mid-to-late 30s before austerity is projected to end. It's not "protecting our children's future" to keep them in low-waged, precarious work from 18 to 38. The UK government is issuing 40-year bonds at 1.87% and, in a fit of perversity, we're "protecting" our children from those interest payments by forcing them to take payday loans at 1,500%.

The NHS saves British business thousands on health insurance, compared with in the supposedly more flexible US

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