Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Immoral? I prefer rational.
In a recent exchnage in the comments of this post on Tax - Jordan (Just Left) finished with the following charge:
"I am perfectly comfortable with returning the gain (after the pain) to those who suffered most, and to whom it would make the most difference. That is what Working for Families does, through tax credits and other mechanisms.Not a charge My Right takes lightly.
If your position is basically that high income earners deserve this dividend more than low income earners who have families to support, then I charge you sir with being immoral."
Jordan - my position is that I want the best for everyone (and world peace - naturally). I absolutely believe that no member of a decent society should be left behind in poverty, should be unable to afford what is required for a 'decent life' (but does 'decent' now mean having Sky TV?), should enjoy less rights before the law. I firmly believe in all of these things.
But when it comes to tax - I am about balance. Hypothetically, if the current top tax rate was 25 cents (and the lower brackets lower than they are now) and the economy was ticking over and social services were as they are now - would you still argue that 39 cents was appropriate as the top rate? Where does it stop? Will it ever be appropriate to lower the top rate below 39%?
Why does the idea of taking less tax of people on a higher income revolt you so? Do you believe in complete redistribution?
Why don't you take it 100 percent and redistribute it evenly? Because you know that before long a lot of people will think - "screw this, no point working hard if the cheque is the same anyway". I don't want us to be equally poor - I want everyone's wealth to increase - everyone's.
As an aside - we recently debated the benefits of maintaining "work / life balance". My desire for nice things requires money, to earn that money I work long and hard (by choice) - but the balance could certainly be improved if half of my working life wasn't spent working for Cullen.
