This is an excellent Thinkpiece. I particularly liked this bit:

"...rising prosperity should be evenly shared across all groups in society. Such a strategy would make the economy less dependent on debt for maintaining demand..."

To me, this seems to be of critical importance in the context of current debates regarding budget deficits and cuts, and the need not to undermine recovery. This is something I explored in a recent openDemocracy.net article under the title of "Recovery requires redistribution" (15 March).

Since 1980, the growth of private debt has had the effect of maintaining the propensity to consume, and thus demand. Since the crash, deficit spending by governments has done so. But clearly, neither are sustainable. But while Keynesianism has always focused on public deficit spending to maintain demand, Keynes's framework also suggests that reducing income inequality will also have the effect of stimulating demand. I think we need to be putting this forward as the only credible strategy for recovery.