A Retro View of the Triumphal Arch
There is much to be dismayed about in present day Great Britain [GB], many even feel that we should dispense with the term, ‘Great’ and just call the country the United Kingdom [UK], but is it a united kingdom, I think that’s debatable. Being more focused, the financial mess we are in as a nation is perhaps the most important issue to address at the moment. Little is really happening to ensure we don’t do this again. But to some extent we are all culpable, as we all take certain irregularities in our stride. For example the classic case of the plumber who can offer you a much better deal for cash, it is hard to resist a bill of £500.00 compared to £600.00 Plus VAT! This occurrs because the politicians have devised ever ingenious ways of taking our money, thus distorting the system.
You should read the excellent blog by Greg Pytel at http://gregpytel.blogspot.com/ Greg’s analysis of the re-use of money by the banking fraternity has a parallel in the tax system, where this government has bet its shirt on ever increasing consumption, to allow its profiligate spend agenda. I am reminded of the addage ‘He new the price of everything but the value of nothing’, they [the Government] have bought with alacrity, created new quangos and Zsars of every persuasian proffering advice and councilling, but in essense doing nothing. scarcely can we see real production, actual work, converting raw materials into saleable products. Even in the virtual economy, of Internet and computer software, we have lost ground to our competitors. If Alan Turing were alive today, he would not need to take a poisoned apple, he would simply hemorage on the stupidity of our nation, so much talent wasted.
Moving back to the tax system, almost everything carries tax, but one massive exception is your principal residence, during your lifetime. So there is a great incentive to move into this asset class, evidence shows that our belief in the benefit of investing in our homes fuels boom and bust economics, particularly as the bankers have realised there is scope in making use of the capital locked in the asset to assist yet more profligate consumption, i.e. equity release for a holiday or car. I know of a number of individuals who have ramped up excessive property portfolios on the back of low interest rates and high housing demand, because the increasing asset value allows larger borrowing. There are still television shows explaining how to be a property developer, for goodness sake!
This is not production, it’s a “loads a money” culture. But when the people who sit in Parliament are ingeniously using their expenses system to switch homes so that the taxpayer pays them [MP’s] to build up their own property portfolios, at no cost to themselves, and when these same people cry, “It’s within the rules”, you have to realise there is little hope of anyone dealing with the present financial crisis in a way that will end this repetitive cycle once and for all.
I wrote this short article in the hope that others will see that much needs to be done to return this once great nation to an industrious, inventive and proud country again. Just like the people who created this old pump in the eighteenth century.
