Apology I didn’t get to it in the last thread: Could I please ask that the generalised 1% bashing stop? It’s incorrect to use Bezos and Musk as the 1% poster boys - they’re in a much, much smaller percentile. I’m not trying to start a debate on inequality, but it pains me that my otherwise wise Tattlers are doing a number of people a disservice by tarring them with the same brush that applies to the behaviour of some egregious outliers.
“In
one respect, the
UK tax system already looks
top heavy. The
top one per cent pay 30
per cent of all
income tax revenues: a
higher share than at any time in past twenty years. In other words, three in every ten pounds that the government receives in
income tax is
paid by just over 300,000 individuals. (London School of Economics study, January this year)
There are decent people who realise how fortunate they are and contribute to society as best they can, and there are jerks who feel entitled and contribute only if there’s something in it for them, there are wackos with a bit of a disconnect (eg moonshots during a pandemic) and and and. At every level. Broadsides - including the words “scum”, “scumbags” with the solution that “we need to take the money off them” don’t move the discussion forward.
In the UK at least, the government does a good (not perfect) job of collecting from individuals. However, legislation hasn’t caught up with, for example, the Amazon world - and that’s where one sees the pittance of taxes paid. That’s what I’d focus on, because we can influence it through our MPs. Randomised bashing of whole groups of people is just ... random and mostly ineffective. It’s what sugars do in reverse.
To bring this back to H, there’s a poster boy for the 0.1% (not 1%) and I’d like to see that entitled (in attitude) tax slacker get his comeuppance. Unfortunately, my (accountant) hubby believes some will always slip through the net because they develop new tricks before HMRC/IRS/etc can close the gap. Sometimes we need to trust Karma, and I’ve seen plenty of evidence that she delivers
.