Friday, April 22, 2005

Taxes again.

There's a nice debate on local taxes going on at Boris Johnson's blog. I was drawn into it and spent part of my lunchtime writing a long post, so thought I would save some time today by posting it here too (see below).

Despite his tousled, dozy image, Boris Johnson is an intelligent and thoughtful politician of libertarian leanings. It's a shame that Britain is now so snobbish against the "upper classes" that he has no hope of being prime minister. As a nation we really can't seem to get this "social class" thing right (i.e. recognise it as irrelevant). I really believe Boris would do a better job than most as PM - and he has a sense of humour too. I recommend his site to you (see link in sidebar). Meanwhile, back to taxes....

Local income tax is a very bad idea. Unless you think earning is a crime to be punished (in which case why not vote Labour and have done with it?).

A high earner is already paying progressive income tax, a further percentage of income as NI (aka stealth income tax) and probably higher-than-average VAT on purchases. S/he is consuming less (probably zero) "benefits" because s/he doesn't use State schools or hospitals, and is not (by definition) unemployed or (unless scrounging) on Social Security.

Now, because s/he has a house and a country cottage, the LDems want to take another two progressive slices out of her/his income. Where's the justice in that? Sure we should have a safety net for those genuinely down on their luck, but can the fourth richest nation on earth really need to spend one billion pounds a day on public "services" - much of it being wasted on the manifold inefficiencies that only a Government can generate?

Looking enviously at other peoples' money and demanding that State power be used to steal it and give it to you is a sin, guys.

Why is no-one demanding that the State's useless services (i.e. most of them) be closed down? That's the way to reduce taxes, not to manage the gender co-ordinators more efficiently.

I am coming sadly to Lenin's view that "the worse the better". Until the IMF sends the bailiffs men in again, even the Tories are going to be pimps for the State it seems.

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