HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
‘NO CONTEXT!! Did you know Australia has billionaires, too?’
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At its fundamental level that’s what it is. You may not like how they go about trying to achieve that but that is ultimately what it is.
I’ll have to look it up but to think that Greece was going to get out of that situation without any pain is just naive. The damage would have massive. Inability to borrow money, damage to pension funds, inflation spikes, assets at risk etc. It’s huge. You extend that into the EU and it potentially becomes a domino effect across the entire block.
So they stepped in and measures included writing off some of Greece’s sovereign debt. Overall it was probably the lesser of two evils.
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The problem is that the super rich are incredibly good at not paying tax.
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So it seems.
But as I said, an ideal opportunity to try and address that has been completely overlooked by the working man’s party.
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You do realise there are right-wing parties in other countries too, right?
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Agreed. I’m still not sure what the reasoning for that was.
Couldn’t possibly be him trying to keep his rich friends happy, that’s a Tory only monopoly.
I’m surprised your chosen troll didn’t include the suggestion that perhaps it couldn’t possibly be true because he has no friends.
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I thought the changes to inheritance tax for super-wealthy non-farmers was an attempt to do that.
As @mascot said, the super rich are incredibly good at not paying tax. It’s all well and good setting tax at 95% or whatever, but if they go to live on an tax-exile island somewhere, you are getting 95% of bugger all.
Having said that, I don’t think offering preferential treatment to tax dodgers is ever going to be a viable economic strategy. At least not for a mixed economy with a sizeable population. Inward investors are usually interested in things like infrastructure, the skill level of the workforce, and even things like the NHS, because they don’t have to fork out for employee healthcare.
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The Pensions and Non-Dom stuff too. Given it had ruled out a number of tax increases its scope for moves was probably relatively limited.
Furthermore, not everything can be resolved in one budget - particularly only a few months after taking power. I think the government may already be trying to do too much too soon as it is.
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Like any diverse group there will be tensions and differences of opinions amongst them. Germany and the UK were probably the biggest voices in the room pushing for austerity measures. UK because it sat with Osbourne and Camerons view on Austerity, and Germany because it is naturally fiscally conservative.
From what I recall Greece was also hit particularly hard because it was viewed as not making the necessary adjustments domestically to increase tax revenues (or tackle fraud). It was also believed that Greece was unwilling to tighten up its banking system and that some of its banks were either laundering money or evading taxes.
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The Tory project is underpinned by centuries worth of cultural norms.
Lords and peasants…
Us and them…
Rich and poor…
Fat cats and starving dogs…
Now…I think Sir Keir is the greatest political voice since Martin Luther King, however, I think even he would struggle to land a bloodless revolution in the four months plus change since the election…
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On reflection, why hasn’t Sir Keir fixed the NHS, schools, trains, my boiler, Brexit, and offshore tax havens yet?!?!
Just what the fuck has that lazy cunt been doing…making tools?
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Maybe I can fix the boiler myself?
Nah. Just annoying them.
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I think I remember reading a lot about how Greece had lied to get into the Eurozone to begin with or something like that? They hadn’t met the requirements.
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That rings a bell. Although I can’t remember how much of it had been a case of actual lying, and how much was known but the EU turned a blind eye to get Greece on board.
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I think a good deal of the latter. There was a push to keep the smaller nations on board so that the Eurozone wasn’t just regarded as a Franco-German project.
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Read a lot of books about Billy Goats when you were a kid didn’t you, you’re obsessed with them.
Not true. Taxing farm inheritance and public schools is essentially targeting the wealth that the super rich can’t offshore.
Probably could have done more, but sadly any attempts to just increase basic taxation for the super rich is only going to be futile.
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