The certainty principle!

In my review of Stoppard's brilliant new play Rock 'n' Roll, I suggested that it was an illustration of the playwright's belief that the only certainty in this world was uncertainty.  But of course, there are a couple more of which we are all only too well aware - death and taxes.  I will forgo discussion of the first for personal reasons.  In the small development in which I live surrounded (for the time being) by people older than me, they are dropping like flies, to the extent that I'm thinking of renaming the place Death Row!  So let me turn to the second, taxes, and advise you to read the leader in this weekend's The Business (Britain's ONLY newspaper - blah-blah-blah!) but if you're too busy trying to earn enough to pay your tax bill then you may read this less erudite synopsis.

As is well known, president Bush has in recent years pushed through a programme of tax cuts to howls of outrage and excoriation from amongst others, the D(i)mocrats, sundry (un)wiseacres in the American media and various economic illiterates in the twin dustbins of bovine British stupidity, the Labour and Conservative parties.  "Tax cuts for the rich", was the suitably juvenile slogan produced for the babies in the 'Trot-lot' creche to chant, not least because it consisted of words of only one syllable!  Two D(i)mocrat senators described the tax-cutting policy as "one of the most dangerous, destructive, and dishonourable acts of government ever seen" and "a policy of debt, deficits and decline".  So what happened?  Read on ...

"Since the Bush tax cuts in June 2003, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20% - or $2,2 trillion, roughly the same size as the total [my emphasis] Chinese economy", reports The Business, adding that a third of the extra taxes received are coming from individuals in the richest 1% of the population as a result of cuts to personal taxation on executive bonuses and stock market profits, the unkindest cut of all, according to the economic and psychological dimwits who still cannot grasp the truth that if you lower taxes to the rich they end up contributing even more.  I should add quickly, before Leftie critics pile in, that The Business points out that whilst president Bush has been superb in pushing through these tax cuts, he has also been stupidly profligate in spending.  Even so, better to be half right rather than totally wrong as are virtually all the western European nations with the honourable exception of Eire where, since 1993, they have reduced their tax burden from 42.2% down to 34.5% and seen the tax haul treble, up 192% in real terms compared to Britain's 58% despite Gordon Brown reaching historically new heights of taxation. 

The cheerful thought for those of you cretinous enough to believe that higher taxes are good for you, is that in your choice for the next prime minister of Britain, as far as taxation goes, you have no choice!  Both 'Greedy' Gordon and 'Dim Dave' reckon they can spend your money much more wisely than you can, so they will share the same slogan, "Stand and Deliver!"

Comments

[Lawrence Duff]

Well spotted Pater, what an article; Laffer’s curve just keeps on-and-on doing its thing – everywhere except Blighty! It makes you weep just how rich the poor could be in Blighty if we only had a golden haired Thatcher to lead the way…

The theory is sound and the numbers compelling; why doesn’t the UK mainstream media publish this and why do we have no-one to vote for to implement it?

You’d think it might be an elaborate conspiracy, but if so it defies reason because there are no discernible beneficiaries who might be the “high tax rate” conspirators. The public sector loses because the revenue to the exchequer that pays for them is reduced, the poor lose because the benefits they might receive are under-funded, the rich lose because their income is deprived of its most favourable tax regime and must earn it on less attractive shores, the politicians lose because they commit to an economic manifesto that ultimately underperforms at best and ruins at worst, and the media… ah, wait a minute, the media. That mirror to the foetus-brained turnips that are the majority class of the British population today: the Chav-mass. The Chav-mass has long forgotten the lessons of the 80’s and is now so cretinous it can probably never relearn them. So why bother telling them?

Hug a hoodie. We’re all doomed.

Son of Duff

Your link didn’t seem to work though, try here.

[Lawrence Duff]

“…if we only had a golden haired Thatcher to lead the way…”

Perhaps now I understand Stoppard’s choice of Syd Barrett’s enchanting melody (the lyrics are actually from a James Joyce poem) in the opening scene of Rock’n’Roll: piping in the leader who, with her actor friend, would free Czech Republic and the Eastern half of Europe?

“Lean out your window, golden hair
I heard you singing in the midnight air
My book is closed, I read no more
Watching the fire dance, on the floor
I’ve left my book, I’ve left my room

For I heard you singing through the gloom
Singing and singing, a merry air
Lean out the window, golden hair...”

Will somebody please find the pipe now and play an encore for the Western half of Europe?

Son of Duff

[David Duff]

"... why do we have no-one to vote for to implement it?"

The victory of doctrinaire dogma over intelligence.

I have fixed the link, thanks.

As to your second comment; steady on, young Duffers, bit emotional, what!

[reasoninrevolt]

Wow its amazing that a business magazine would publish such socking self-congratulatory evidence of the policies their lords and masters pushed through via the strings attached to their Bush puppet. I guess the media is truely independent and honest. Golly!