Rant of the day

No, think it's Ford that make a Focus !!!! Not Triumph

 

Ford is short for Found On Road Dead .........

 

I thought it was Fix Or Repair Daily

 

Back to tax!

I think too many folk are seriously ill-informed about effective tax rates and our political masters are happy to keep it that way. Collectively we are not that smart about money more generally.

There is a thing called the Laffer Curve (named after a mathematician) but in its own way it echoes Adam Smith who 'invented ' economics nearly 300 years ago. Smith thought of himself as a 'moral philosopher' - why do people behave as they do and with what effect? What he observed was how Glasgow merchants operated and the broadly beneficial effects of their efforts; we would probably call it trickle down. In simple terms, you can get a job from a rich man but never a poor one.
Smith broadly concluded that incentives matter.
Laffer basically worked out that if you over tax you create avoidance incentives. Don't forget tax evasion (illegal) is avoiding tax you owe. Avoidance (legal) is arranging your affairs so you don't create the tax liability in the first place (ask Jimmy Carr......or maybe not). Get enough avoidance and total tax receipts fall. That is why the 50% rate raises less than 40%. It may be counter intuitive, looks like bad politics, but it WORKS!

Now, the personal 'allowance' is an insulting term. Whose money is it anyway? People have been conned into thinking tax is a 'good thing' whereas it is better thought of as a 'necessary evil'. Adam Smith (him again) recognised that governments should do what individuals could not or would not do: defence, roads, judicial system (crime and because business only works if contracts are enforceable- Russia take note) etc. The basic lie of politics is that a politician can take your money and make better decisions about what he spends it on than you do and get better value for money.

Heard of hypothecation? Nat Ins goes into the same pot as everything else. It is a tax on income too. VAT is 20% on most things. 10% cat tax (& VAT is calculated on that too!) petrol, booze......our effective tax rate is MUCH higher.

Most of us pay over 50% tax already. Higher rate tax payers on £45k + often pay over 65%. The top 10% of earners already pay something like 90% of all income tax. Tax corporations hard and they move their operations. (Laffer!). Only the middle classes exist in sufficient numbers and are unable to escape the taxman's clutches.

Just don't believe in 'free stuff'. Someone else always pays for it, now or in the future. The public sector is important but 'unproductive' - ALL growth in the size of the economy HAS to be in the private sector. All tax is an impediment to economic activity and growth.

'Austerity ' might be a dirty word but 'insolvency' is much dirtier. The gift of Blair and Brown debt is more toxic than even the Tories are prepared to admit.........they can barely stop the submarine continuing to sink.....

 

My very point!!!!!! Sheep to slaughter .........

 

Doggone typo!

 

The difference between the debt and the deficit?

The debt is how deep the submarine is. The deficit is how fast it is still sinking. We have yet to reverse the dive, just slowed it quite a bit. There is a crush depth somewhere. Corbyn seems keen to find it!

 

I imagine she won't sleep well tonight!!
One of the fuel stations I go to has a saucer with pennies in it so you can have your penny back, so to speak. Trouble is it gives you one more penny to add to all that change, although once you've taken your penny I guess you can swap it back for a tenner, but then they can't open the til without a sale so then you have to buy something to swap your change for a tenner but because you just bought something you don't have a tenners worth of change

 

Well at least she was doing her math...
At a fuel station in Kansas I owed 10,01$ and gave another dopey wee b... babe a 20 dollar note and a one cent coin.
She was too intellectually challenged with this and handed me back my one cent coin and then started dishing out 9,99$ in small change.
We should learn more in high school than jumping around with fluffy balls and cheerily leading the boys who learn to build bird houses. (Nothing against bird houses but I am definitely pro education ).

 

I can beat that - went to a Mc Donalds - order came to £10.40 the young lad was totally confused when I presented £10.00 voucher. He seriously took 20-30 seconds to calculate that I owed 40p balance.

 

The PRICE goes to you...

 

Bloody hay fever!
Need I say more!

 

I'm with you there, only started getting it the last few years, this year is definitely the worst

 

You should have made it large fries, that would have really stumped him.
What has happened to our education system ?

 

Worst year I can remember for a long time.
Makes hard work of it with the full face helmet on.
Heading up into North Yorks now on the bike for maximum pollen doseage, hoping it will strengthen my resistance.

 

Our local Texaco garage in Ardrossan wont charge you for a penny over, £10.01 is £10.0!
This has happened a couple of times. when offered the penny she said they dont bother, may be beacuase they over charge any way?
£1.16.9 when Asda is £1.12.9, thats a big extra!, hardly gone down when the other did!

 

Ya daft bugger, lift the pennie first, add to your twenty and get ten back!!!!
My regular station has the penny tray, works well