Basic (Very Basic) Economics

[poliphilo]

OK, so the rich are also going to be hit by the chancellor's latest measures. Good. But will it be proportionate? Will increasing tax on  savings inflict the same amount of pain on the rich as decoupling benefits from the cost of living will inflict on the poor? Of course not. The rich can take it. They have resources. A bob or two to fall back on. That's what being rich is all about. They can take losses without it affecting their quality of life. The poor, on the other hand, feel every cut. A tiny loss in income can spell the difference between eating and not eating, or eating something nutritious and eating rubbish. Take thousands off a millionaire and he's still a millionaire; take a few pence off a poor family and you make them destitute. 

I don't think our politicians understand this. Any of them. They're all rich- most of them by inheritance. Is there a single person on either of the front benches with first hand experience of poverty?

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

There is a huge difference either side the pond, I think, on attitudes to this.

As I said above, I come originally from an impoverished background and made good via state sponsored education and further by my own efforts, paid for by that 'seed money' to get me onto an undergrad course in the first place. I taught seriously disabled and terminally ill kids for many years and now earn a crust writing military history. The colliers' granddaughter is now MA, BA(Hons), BA, Dip SEN, Dip MSH, PGCE. :o)

We're not filthy rich, but comfortably off and I feel that I have a duty to those less fortunate than myself and fwiw I'm also an abuse survivor and a member of a badly oppressed minority. While I'd agree to some extent that there is often too much prating about 'rights' and little enough about 'duties' is doesn't stop me feeling that I have a duty to perform and perform it I will, both via taxes and out of my own handbag.

It may sound daft to some, but it means I sleep nights with a clear conscience whilst wondering how some of the political classes manage it!