Spending Billions of pounds to shore up banks that had made appallingly bad business decisions so that they don’t go bust, which means very wealthy people and their companies can continue living in the manner to which they have become accustomed: Vital actions to stabilise the economy.
Asking the said very wealthy people to pay more of the cost of cleaning up the mess: Class War.
View: If National Newspaper Editors earned as little as Cabinet ministers, there would be less outrage about this.
10 Comments
April 23, 2009 at 12:58 pm
But Hopi, they won’t pay, the Laffer curve shows you why.
Its gesture politics and you know it.
April 23, 2009 at 1:13 pm
National Newspaper Editors imho earn a lot less than Cabinet ministers but get paid a lot more.
April 23, 2009 at 1:25 pm
This would be a good analogy Hopi if the policy had been to windfall tax on the bonuses of bankers recently nationalised. A 50% tax rate though targets failed bankers like Israeli airforce cluster bombs target individual members of Hamas.
April 23, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Take it you have not seen the Mirror today .
April 23, 2009 at 5:05 pm
[...] Sen points out the ridiculous attitude of the right-wing [...]
April 23, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Interestingly, I couldn’t get hold of a copy of the Mirror today. It had sold out everywhere I went. Meanwhile lots of copies of the Telegraph with it’s Class War headline and the Mail with its They’ve Ruined Britain headline stared me in the face.
April 24, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Hmm…..the Laffer Curve was written on the back of a napkin by Laffer at a dinner. I therefore find it hard to take seriously the idea from ‘fiscal conservatives’ that the optimal tax rate for revenue-raising is lower than whatever the current rate is. It was a political ploy used by Reagan to sell his idea of cutting the top tax rate in the US in the early 1980s – an act which of course contributed to massive US budget deficits that Bush and Clinton had to clear up from 1989-2000.
I doubt that anyone on £149k, if offered a pay rise to £200k would turn it down saying “oh, i’d rather not get more money ‘cos I might have to pay a 50% marginal rate on it”
April 25, 2009 at 7:10 am
I agree with the principal of the rich paying more tax in an emergency like this – but why is nobody suggesting that we take the former directors of the five failed banks to court charged with offences under the Banking Act – to wit, running a model that did not keep a sufficient reserve of capital? There’s a good chance we might get some of the money they “earned” during the “good times” back in fines if a prosecution was successful. Surely that would have a more salutary effect than a modest increase in tax which will probably be evaded by those who can afford the best accountants.
April 25, 2009 at 8:03 pm
The laffer curve is not the point , the point is that when Brown reduced the top rate his take went up . He knows he is costing the country money with this gesture even if you do not .
April 26, 2009 at 9:34 am
“When Brown reduced the top rate is take went up”
What a strange comment. The top rate has been 40pc for the whole length of this gov’t.
The tax revenues from the rich went up in 1980s America and Britain because (a) of general economic growth; and (b) due to rising inequality – as a greater share of national income was going to the wealthy.