What is excellerate? (again)
I just came back from meeting Clay Lowe. We were talking about the future of Ascent and I realised something important about excellerate and it's role in the post-industrial revolution that will change the way we live and work. Even Gordon Brown was talking about it in his budget speech.
Ascent is about achieving our potential as individuals.
Excellerate is about achieving our potential as a working society.
Gordon Brown is reviewing the way that 'managed service companies' operate. Basically, groups of contractors form limited companies in order to pay as little tax as they are obliged to by law and not to get totally ripped off as poor employees are. Ths means something important for the industrial age: the government is losing its ability to track who does what work for who, getting paid what. The portfolio career that I mentioned in a previous post is a stop gap measure to bridge the divide between commitment and choice, but it has to be replaced by a whole new way of working and earning, and the government have to figure out a whole new way to raise public funds from that. With a portfolio career, you might not get a P60 any more. PAYE and NIC will be a thing of the past.
Of course, public funds are only needed because people have to be paid to provide public services, so one day this might be a thing of the past too. Imagine - a true post-industrial society where everyone contributes to public service, rather than just paying money to get laundered through countless layers of admin before it reaches the people it was intended for.
Excellerate is a role model for the business structure of the future. Right now, the government doesn't like it because it doesn't know how to tax it. One day, historians might see us in the same light as the women who chained themselves to railings in order to win their right to vote...
Visitors from the future - the fight for our freedom to work began here.
Ascent is about achieving our potential as individuals.
Excellerate is about achieving our potential as a working society.
Gordon Brown is reviewing the way that 'managed service companies' operate. Basically, groups of contractors form limited companies in order to pay as little tax as they are obliged to by law and not to get totally ripped off as poor employees are. Ths means something important for the industrial age: the government is losing its ability to track who does what work for who, getting paid what. The portfolio career that I mentioned in a previous post is a stop gap measure to bridge the divide between commitment and choice, but it has to be replaced by a whole new way of working and earning, and the government have to figure out a whole new way to raise public funds from that. With a portfolio career, you might not get a P60 any more. PAYE and NIC will be a thing of the past.
Of course, public funds are only needed because people have to be paid to provide public services, so one day this might be a thing of the past too. Imagine - a true post-industrial society where everyone contributes to public service, rather than just paying money to get laundered through countless layers of admin before it reaches the people it was intended for.
Excellerate is a role model for the business structure of the future. Right now, the government doesn't like it because it doesn't know how to tax it. One day, historians might see us in the same light as the women who chained themselves to railings in order to win their right to vote...
Visitors from the future - the fight for our freedom to work began here.
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