Tuesday 13 September 2011

On The 50p Tax Rate

With David Cameron assuring us "we are spending too much and taxing too little" this time last year, and George Osborne drawing up the Tory party line in crayon from his estate as "we are all in this together", one can't help but feel that the public must be missing something when a tax cut for the rich is planned as a bombastic sequel to massive public sector cuts and unemployment.

To the 300,000 expected job losses in the public sector: your sacrifice is not in vain. We are 'all in this together' and your duty to this country will be repaid through that extra pocket money to the Eton collective of 2011.

England prevails.

I'm not an economist, and I'm sure there are many reasons to empathise with those who are sceptical over just how effective the 50p tax rate is. But I do believe that after winning a country over by convincing us that we are 'living beyond our means' and that we are 'taxing too little', tax cuts for the rich shouldn't score too highly on the government agenda right now.

In a time of austerity and attempts to create a united face against this country's debts, it would be far more reassuring if I could truly trust the government when they say that 'we are all in this together'. A government works on trust and at this time one can't help but question who exactly this 'we' is that they've been referring to. The super-rich, who will not feel the skinning of the public services? Nor even the slight benefits of a tax reduction from their cavernous bank accounts.

As Mikhail Bakunin said :

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick."

Especially if the People's Stick is hitting some far more than others.
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    4 comments:

    1. Ben13 September 2011 at 07:05

      I see where you're coming from, but on the flipside of the coin, why should some be taxed a higher proportion of their earnings simply because their skills happen to be in such high demand? A certain amount of levelling out by the state is fine, but to my mind asking someone to give back half of what they earn above a certain threshold is not far off setting a maximum wage, and we need to face up to the fact that certain exceptionally talented individuals deserve sackloads of money, and the state has no right to tax them disproportionately.

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    2. YouGotSlade13 September 2011 at 12:23

      I don't think now's the right time to mess around with the tax though. As much as anything else, the government needs people to believe them when they tell us that any hardships are for a reason. That we *are* all in this together. And any tax on the super-rich is worth far more than a tax on the rest of society. They won't feel the sting of public service cuts, most likely. If we are 'all in this together' then I don't think this is the right step to take.

      Thanks for your comment though, it's certainly the flipside of the coin.

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    3. Ben14 September 2011 at 05:46

      Don't mention it. I'm not some super-rich higher tax bracket person by the way, I'm a common or garden, down-trodden, public sector employee, and sometime devil's advocate.

      ReplyDelete
    4. YouGotSlade14 September 2011 at 10:42

      Haha, don't worry I didn't assume you were! Your points are appreciated.

      ReplyDelete

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