Those who dismissed David Cameron’s talk of rolling back the State as nothing more than a gimmick might want to take a good long look at some of the latest figures to be released on tax and welfare. They reveal a surreal picture of a society where the successful see their income savagely raided only to find remnants of it returned to them in the form of benefits and welfare that they have no need of. This is bloated state bureaucracy at its worst as it blindly eats up people’s hard earned wealth along with their independence.
The new calculations by Smith and Williamson reveal that the average family now has an eye wateringly high 39% of their income taken away from them in the form of taxes. However for the Middle Class this rises to the draconian figure of 49% of people’s income. On the most basic level there must surely be a clear moral unacceptability to the State forcibly requisitioning almost half of people’s money. Indeed for those in the top rate of tax income tax rises to 50% alone not including other forms of indirect tax. This is privately earned wealth and no matter what marvellous programmes the State purports to be undertaking on its citizen’s behalf it has no right to seize it in such abundance.
Perhaps there would be grounds for attempting to defend the fact that taxes on Middle Class families have increased by 40% since 1997 if in return Labour had been delivering some social miracle. If in return for robbing the rich to better the poor society had in fact witnessed greater equality and opportunities for the deprived then these policies may at least have had something with which to justify them. If we were being given immaculate hospitals, excelling schools, crime free streets and generous provision for the elderly then perhaps we would have to tolerate these inroads to our freedom.
But this is not what has been happening. Public services are undeniably shoddy and desperately underperforming in comparison to how much cash is thrown at them. The amount pensioners are allotted is pitiful while certain urban areas increasingly take on a feeling of lawlessness. Furthermore none of these attempts to redistribute wealth has done anything to make British society any more equal. The gap between rich and poor has continued to grow rapidly while social mobility under Labour has fallen to levels lower than those so complained about by the Left under Margret Thatcher.
The entire situation takes another dizzying turn for the unfathomable when another set of recently released figures are taken into consideration, this time by the Office of National Statistics. They show that last year 32% of benefits went to people on higher than average incomes, a bill of 53 billion pounds. Money is quite literally being given away to people who have no need of it. People are having their money taken from them only to then have it returned to them with astronomic administrative fees deducted and at the end of this process instructed to be eternally grateful to the omnipotent and all benevolent State because their own money is being handed back to them dressed up as tax credits and benefits.
This tax on the wealth creating sections on the population is undoubtedly stifling the incentive for entrepreneurship and self betterment. It tells people that there is no point in starting your own business or trying to increase your income because it will only be taken from you by the government anyway. What does increase your income, people are told, is handouts from the State. This not only takes away the incentive to prosper through your own initiative but it also takes away peoples incentive and ability to seek their own welfare provision. Heavily taxed Middle Class families who might otherwise choose to get private medical cover, pay for the children’s education privately or make their own pension provisions are left unable to do so. If these people were left alone to arrange these things for themselves then it would lift a significant burden from public services and leave them for those who genuinely need them. The same should be the case for the benefits system.
Middle Class families don’t need benefits, they need their own money and incentives to put more wealth in the economy and cater for their own health and educational needs. This is not about better bank accounts for the privileged because such a scenario inevitably only serves to benefit the less well off also. The above situation creates jobs and income for these people and frees up their public services and welfare system from those who shouldn’t need to rely on it.
What has happened under New Labour in this respect has been appallingly illiberal and intolerably stupid and unjust. Unjust to those who have had their hard earned money stolen by the government and unjust to those who genuinely require welfare but instead have seen it paid to those who have no need of it. At the first possible opportunity the new government must start to work to rectify this.
The new calculations by Smith and Williamson reveal that the average family now has an eye wateringly high 39% of their income taken away from them in the form of taxes. However for the Middle Class this rises to the draconian figure of 49% of people’s income. On the most basic level there must surely be a clear moral unacceptability to the State forcibly requisitioning almost half of people’s money. Indeed for those in the top rate of tax income tax rises to 50% alone not including other forms of indirect tax. This is privately earned wealth and no matter what marvellous programmes the State purports to be undertaking on its citizen’s behalf it has no right to seize it in such abundance.
Perhaps there would be grounds for attempting to defend the fact that taxes on Middle Class families have increased by 40% since 1997 if in return Labour had been delivering some social miracle. If in return for robbing the rich to better the poor society had in fact witnessed greater equality and opportunities for the deprived then these policies may at least have had something with which to justify them. If we were being given immaculate hospitals, excelling schools, crime free streets and generous provision for the elderly then perhaps we would have to tolerate these inroads to our freedom.
But this is not what has been happening. Public services are undeniably shoddy and desperately underperforming in comparison to how much cash is thrown at them. The amount pensioners are allotted is pitiful while certain urban areas increasingly take on a feeling of lawlessness. Furthermore none of these attempts to redistribute wealth has done anything to make British society any more equal. The gap between rich and poor has continued to grow rapidly while social mobility under Labour has fallen to levels lower than those so complained about by the Left under Margret Thatcher.
The entire situation takes another dizzying turn for the unfathomable when another set of recently released figures are taken into consideration, this time by the Office of National Statistics. They show that last year 32% of benefits went to people on higher than average incomes, a bill of 53 billion pounds. Money is quite literally being given away to people who have no need of it. People are having their money taken from them only to then have it returned to them with astronomic administrative fees deducted and at the end of this process instructed to be eternally grateful to the omnipotent and all benevolent State because their own money is being handed back to them dressed up as tax credits and benefits.
This tax on the wealth creating sections on the population is undoubtedly stifling the incentive for entrepreneurship and self betterment. It tells people that there is no point in starting your own business or trying to increase your income because it will only be taken from you by the government anyway. What does increase your income, people are told, is handouts from the State. This not only takes away the incentive to prosper through your own initiative but it also takes away peoples incentive and ability to seek their own welfare provision. Heavily taxed Middle Class families who might otherwise choose to get private medical cover, pay for the children’s education privately or make their own pension provisions are left unable to do so. If these people were left alone to arrange these things for themselves then it would lift a significant burden from public services and leave them for those who genuinely need them. The same should be the case for the benefits system.
Middle Class families don’t need benefits, they need their own money and incentives to put more wealth in the economy and cater for their own health and educational needs. This is not about better bank accounts for the privileged because such a scenario inevitably only serves to benefit the less well off also. The above situation creates jobs and income for these people and frees up their public services and welfare system from those who shouldn’t need to rely on it.
What has happened under New Labour in this respect has been appallingly illiberal and intolerably stupid and unjust. Unjust to those who have had their hard earned money stolen by the government and unjust to those who genuinely require welfare but instead have seen it paid to those who have no need of it. At the first possible opportunity the new government must start to work to rectify this.
No comments:
Post a Comment