Rowan Williams thinks high taxes are jolly fine.
Dr Rowan Williams said that taxation should not be seen as a way of stifling business or redistributing wealth but helping to make the world a better place in which to live.
He called for new levies to be introduced on financial transactions and carbon emissions, and an end to the idea that unlimited economic growth is desirable.
Oh, good grief! Has this man not heard of the Laffer curve? I am an example of the Laffer curve in action as I deliberately manage my workload to bring my overall profit under the marginal rate. Once I’ve reached that level, I stop working – I see no reason why I should pay more to the government than I absolutely have to.
My paying more tax merely reduces the amount of wealth I have to spend as I see fit. Letting the government have it to piss up the wall on fake charities, quangos and think tanks – or, worse, useless databases and ID cards most certainly will not make society better. A far better arrangement would be to dramatically reduce the tax intake so that government would have to concentrate on those services that matter, thereby making life better for us all by allowing us to keep more of our own money.
As for the risible idea of a Tobin tax; who does he think will pay it? Oh, yeah, that’s right, we will – along with income tax, VAT, national insurance and the various other taxes on goods such as tobacco, alcohol, fuel, cars et al. This isn’t free money sloshing about waiting for HMRI’s greedy claws to clutch at – it is our money that we go out to earn. Already we part with over half our income in tax and when we die the state comes along to take its final cut. We already pay far more in tax than we should, so for this “self confessed hairy lefty” to suggest that we pay more is worthy of utter, utter contempt. The man is a buffoon. It would be more appropriate for him to concentrate on all that God bothering and look after his flock, leaving the real world stuff to the rest of us.
The archbishop also claimed reality television gives us “alarming glimpses” of what the world would look like were everyone to be governed by self-interest.
Oh, bollocks! A few narcissistic twats on reality television is not representative of the rest of us, just as one bumbling buffoon is not representative of all God botherers. And self-interest is why people trade in the first place.
As part of this, the archbishop said: “We have to ask about ‘green taxes’ (including ‘green’ tax breaks) that will check environmental irresponsibility and build up resources to address the ecological crises that menace us.
“It is of course connected with other proposals about currency exchange taxation – the ‘Tobin tax’ idea: the point is that we should be thinking about taxation neither as an unreasonable burden on enterprise nor as a simple mechanism of redistribution but as a potentially sophisticated tool for long-term ‘economy’ – housekeeping.
“Taxation builds a habitat – already, quite properly, through state welfare provision, but potentially in other less familiar ways.”
Ah, yes, jump on the old green bandwagon – Marxism by any other name. If it moves, tax it. If it doesn’t, tax it anyway. Taxation at over half of our income is most certainly an unreasonable burden and taxation as a sophisticated tool is something clearly not noticed by the present profligate incumbents of Whitehall who see it as a means to fund whatever half-witted ideas float into their heads that morning. Taxation, far from building a habitat is taking money from those who have earned it and either giving it to those who haven’t or simply pouring it into the bottomless pits of quangos and fake charities.
There is nothing like having less money to play with to encourage thrift. Less tax take will concentrate the minds of those charged with spending it. Then, perhaps, we will see fewer government departments (why, for example do we have a department of culture?) and fewer jumped up special interest groups nagging and nannying us over what to eat, how much exercise to take and whether we drink or smoke or whatever the health scare du jour is.
Less is definitely more. And less of the Archbishop’s Marxist wibble would be a vast improvement. Actually, on that thought, merely less of the Archbishop would do just fine.
This Archbishop reminds me of something Arthur Balfour once said: “If he had a few more brains he’d be a halfwit”.
This is the guy who lives in a palace funded by the church who are not short of a few bob themselves and whilst they are not the massive landowners they were a few years ago they are still doing rather well for themselves and he thinks taxing us is a good idea?
I wonder if he even pays tax himself or gets his accountants to help him in tax avoidance?
I suspect that Dr Rowan Williams is s Labour stooge, probably always will be, he should really be ignored even when spouting religion (something he seems to avoid)
What really pisses me off is that this man thinks that he has any right to speak for those of us who are not actually members of his church.
Which bit of the following teaching of Jesus does he not understand –
” Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s ”
In other words Archbishop, keep out of secular matters and stick to religeous matters.
What really pisses me off is that this man thinks that he has any right to speak for those of us who are members of his church.
I speak as a believing (God help me!) member of the CoE.
So, he thinks tax should be “a potentially sophisticated tool for long-term ‘economy’ – housekeeping”.
Who are the great minds capable of carrying this master plan into effect? We have a bit of evidence to look at here, we have many decades of governments in countries all over the world trying to tell people what to produce, what to buy, what to sell and how to live their lives.
None of them have ever made a single thing people want to buy.
None of them has prevented people buying what they want to buy, they have made the purchase of various things unlawful and the result has always been a vigorous black market controlled by vicious thugs rather than a lawful market under the eye of kindly folk in the local Quicky-Mart.
None of them has changed lifestyle choices to any significant degree.
The bearded wibbler has none other than God on his side, yet he calls for the leviathan State to do what he thinks is his god’s work. Something a bit odd about that, I’d say.
Here is a man whose church is riven with division and whose clergy are being actively poached by Rome and he is wittering on about matters that have nothing to do with him. He should be concentrating his energies working on those rifts – but that would be too difficult…
“He should be concentrating his energies working on those rifts – but that would be too difficult…”
Well, certainly beyond his capabilities, and probably completely impossible.
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