“It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar” - Henry David Thoreau
In the political language of today, people who want to keep what they have earned are said to be “greedy,” while those who wish to take their earnings from them and give it to others (who will vote for them in return) show “compassion.”
Thomas Sowell (via David Thompson.)
Personally, I’d have put “steal” in place of “take”, but Sowell is too much of a gentleman.
Posted in: QOTD.
Free speech is about the state dictating what is or is not acceptable, it is not about free people freely expressing contempt for contemptible behaviour.
Refusal to finance a platform for thugs to spew their venomous bile does not constitute censorship.
Financing a platform constitutes support.
paraphrased from Lord Vetinari
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
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Perhaps that should read
“take it from them, employ someone to redistribute, employ friend as ‘chair’ of agency created to do it, then happily rely on votes of employee, chairperson friend and recipient, whilst person you loot is vilified if they complain, thereby create massively dysfunctional underclass with attendant criminality, low educational attainment, very low levels of employment but widespread bastardom, massive and enduring poverty trap which almost stops the social mobility you carp on about, blighting the hopeless and desperate lives of millions, before retiring into non-exec posts of several similar agencies”
I don’t understand the moral panic generated by the legal practice of tax avoidance. Surely it should be incumbent on us all to starve the ravenous beast of government and make it behave.
Lynne, quite right, whilst there is tax, people will try to avoid it.
There is speculation that our former PM now has Irish citizenship and avoids going over the tipping point in terms of days ordinarily resident in the UK for tax purposes. If true (and I stress if) this would seem to be the very pinnacle of hypocracy. No doubt he could put an end to this speculation by publishing his tax affairs.
Lynne,
It is a deliberate attempt to conflate “avoidance” with “evasion”. Either they are thick or malicious or (probably) both. Starve the beast? Not whilst the UK has a good credit rating! You are right. It is a classic “moral panic” in that it completely fails to address the real issue. The real issue here being the Byzantine nature of taxation. I saw over at Samizdata a bit back a HK tax form. It’s a postcard! Now, Lynne I don’t know your computer history but let’s assume you had something like a Speccy or 64 in the ’80s. Viruses, malware, dialers were not a problem. A modern PC - well what horros lurk beneath! Same thing as tax. The more complicated you make it the more “exploits” you open.