House Lewis: Sanity is Relative
Taxes are one of the two certainties in life, so the saying goes.
In Britain it's obviously a bit different from the US, but we've just seen a universal tax rise, with VAT - essentially, a flat rate 17.5% (now 20% as of 1 Jan this year) tax on every product except food, electricity and a few other exceptions.
Hated? Yes, but also essential if we're going to get our economy back in gear. What I struggle to understand is how Glasgow has negotiated another council tax freeze (that being a regional tax based on the size of your home, decided based on national guidelines but ultimately dictated by regional councils, and the successor to Thatcher's Poll Tax). Obviously my wallet is heavier for a fouth consecutive year of now increases, especially given councils tend to increase it by 5 times inflation when people don't go as far as rioting against that, but councils nationwide are losing staff at an average of about 20% as part of the spending reforms.
That's a hell of a lot of services being cut, including many disabled and vulnerable people being almost literally tossed out onto the street. A Nd I should know that, my mother being one of the top people representing the disabled in her region, and whose job includes attending countless budget meetings in which everyone is basically told how fucked they all are.
I'd happily pay a bit extra tax to save all those jobs, I can tell you!
My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.
^ The predictions are falling apart as we speak. The next CBO report over Obamacare is not likely to show favorable projections.
Costs to states are higher than projected (I sourced this like 3 months ago), more than half the bill was never even read so who knows what kind of waste and incompetence was levied that the CBO missed, and worse the longer this sits around, the less support it has. The bill never should have passed as it was in the first place.