Quote:
Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic
no, that would be your government doing that...
And if envy is the name of the game... just wait. The US policy makers are so over-leveraged, they are talking about VAT, and additional gas tax on top of CAFE, in addition to the income and corporate taxes we already pay, which will also have to go up. States and cities are going broke, too... they're going to have to raise money... Because government never really shrinks. They wouldn't want to do that.
Thanks for providing the pattern for government control, all neat an tidy for the US Government to copy.  |
Yeah I know........
No need for envy, I realise that "the land of the Free" is far from it, although I bet your "Representative" didn't claim against the public purse to have his moat cleaned like mine did !! I've long held the view that all politicians are liars and cheats, it's just that the lies and cheats are disguised in different ways, and to a greater or lesser extent I think the recent revelations in our government has borne this out !!
Taxation is just one of those things, at least we have a relatively simple taxation structure compared to yours as it's centralised, but then our country is just a bit smaller than yours lol !!
Think of it this way. GB plc takes ££££ per day to run, so the govenment coffers need ££££ per day or GB plc goes broke. GB plc raises this money by taxation of the population in various different ways : income tax, sales tax, savings tax, insurance tax, fuel duty, vehicle duty, alcohol duty, tobacco duty etc etc.
If a major source of your income is reduced because, for example you encourage a large proportion of your population to give up smoking and drinking because it's healthier for them you need to compensate for that lost revenue somehow. Increasing the duty on alcohol and tobacco will redress the balance but only for so long as the increase in cost further incourage more people to give up drinking and smoking..........
Same thing for fuel duty, by making vehicles more fuel efficient the revenue from fuel duty reduces, so to compensate you raise fuel duty and add a polution multiplier to less efficient vehicles annual duty payment. This means customers demand more and more efficient vehicles, so the manufacturers develop more efficient (note I didn't say "clean" or "environmentally friendly") vehicles to meet customer demand and the revenue from fuel duty reduces further.
Add to that an aging population where people retire earlier meaning less income tax revenue, but higher demands in pension payments and health care costs, a slowing of the global economy which means people have less money to spend so sales tax revenue falls............ So those who pay tax will have to pay more to offset the extra demands on the public purse by those who don't.........
Which kinda comes right back to MP's expenses, although an MP's salary means that they do pay a hansome amount of income tax, but unlike other occupations which enjoy that level of salary they have, up until now apparently, been able to claw quite a bit back in additional benifits..........
Sorry for the OT rant !!
Phil.