Taxing the rich to solve all problems?!
Discussion
EINSIGN said:
Does anyone here genuinely believe that taxing our top earners will solve our countries problems?
Continously taxing the rich would be counter-productive. But a one off tax like Tatchell is advocating, with maybe some kind of 10 year long term tax-break in return might be the medicine we need.Along with strict future control of spending...
Happy82 said:
The problem in this country is overspending and not spending what we do spend prudently, overtaxing the rich will merely force an exodus of the wealthy and leave us even deeper in the hole.
Absolutely right.We need the likes of Russian Billionaires and so on to spend their money here.
That creates wealth in the UK in itself.
Trying to tax the rich would be entirely counterproductive and make the country poorer.
The very rich are very clever or employ the very clever. They would avoid the attempts to extract more and move abroad. To our loss.
Working for the government until the end of June every year is not everyone's idea of fairness. Being successful in the uk is now punished with punitive tax rates, hardly an incentive to stay or to work harder..... So no, it doesn't solve all problems, I suspect it will do the opposite and start causing problems.
somewhere_on_the_internet said:
For those who say tax the rich/banks more they deserve it for earning so much, blah, blah, blah...
Suppose that once a month, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all of them comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes and claim State benefits, it would go something like this;
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.
So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every month and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20.” Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free but what about the other six men; the paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realised that £20 divided by six is £3.33 but if they subtracted that from everybody’s share then not only would the first four men still be drinking for free but the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So the bar owner suggested a different system.
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing. (100% improvement)
The sixth man paid £2 instead of £3 (33% better off)
The seventh paid £5 instead of £7. (29% better off)
The eighth paid £9 instead of £12. (25% better off)
The ninth paid £14 instead of £18. (23% better off)
And the tenth man now paid £49 instead of £59. (17% better off)
Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free.
But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got £1 out of the £20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got £10!”
“Yes, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a £1 too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”
“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The rich get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”
So, the nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. Funnily enough, the next month the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him.
But when it came to pay for their drinks, they discovered something important – they didn’t have enough money between all of them to pay for even half the bill.
That’s how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes do tend to get the most benefit from tax reliefs and reductions. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
Suppose that once a month, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all of them comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes and claim State benefits, it would go something like this;
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.
So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every month and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20.” Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free but what about the other six men; the paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realised that £20 divided by six is £3.33 but if they subtracted that from everybody’s share then not only would the first four men still be drinking for free but the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So the bar owner suggested a different system.
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing. (100% improvement)
The sixth man paid £2 instead of £3 (33% better off)
The seventh paid £5 instead of £7. (29% better off)
The eighth paid £9 instead of £12. (25% better off)
The ninth paid £14 instead of £18. (23% better off)
And the tenth man now paid £49 instead of £59. (17% better off)
Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free.
But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got £1 out of the £20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got £10!”
“Yes, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a £1 too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”
“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The rich get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”
So, the nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. Funnily enough, the next month the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him.
But when it came to pay for their drinks, they discovered something important – they didn’t have enough money between all of them to pay for even half the bill.
That’s how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes do tend to get the most benefit from tax reliefs and reductions. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
EINSIGN said:
Does anyone here genuinely believe that taxing our top earners will solve our countries problems?
An oddly phrased question, imho. Taxing the rich won't solve our countries problems, but neither will reducing immigration, spending on social security or curtailing our military adventures. Doesn't mean that any are a poor idea by definition, though.12gauge said:
I like the idea of it. A 99% tax rate will shut up the lefties. It wont work, but it will be nice not to have some fugly old scouse fossil come on TV every 5 minutes and insult my intelligence.
I think my idea of a 99% top tax rate with huge loopholes is an ideaThe lefties are happy as the rich are paying 99% tax
The rich are happy as they aren't paying a 99% tax
We have similar problems in the US, our current Messiah is hell bent on changing the tax system.
It is being "sold" as a tax on the rich, which of course is popular with people who are not.
However, income tax is on income not wealth.
So...the wealthy can adjust their affairs and sit out the current administration by limiting their income for a year or two (I hope not longer)
A mere inconvenience for them.
Those in the "trying to get rich" catagory will end up getting hammered.
It is being "sold" as a tax on the rich, which of course is popular with people who are not.
However, income tax is on income not wealth.
So...the wealthy can adjust their affairs and sit out the current administration by limiting their income for a year or two (I hope not longer)
A mere inconvenience for them.
Those in the "trying to get rich" catagory will end up getting hammered.
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