QUOTE (FionaK @ 18/5/2011, 23:34)
QUOTE
It sounds like we're mainly in agreement that pensions are essentially a wealth transfer tax from the poor to the rich. Do I have that about right? The poor die young and don't collect.
Er....no. The poor certainly do die younger but that is nothing whatsoever to do with pensions per se.
QUOTE
I proposed a VAT surcharge and current account expenditure. What was your alternate proposal?
I like pensions
....
Let me try to get to your essay in a while.
I like pensions too and I agree with you that the poor die younger.
However, and this is a big however, why is it that the poor, the weak, and the stupid, have been heavily taxed through payroll penalties to support the flush lifestyles of the wealthy, the healthy, and the wise?
If you're anything like me, you probably are above the lowest quintile and you have sumptuous reserves of capital, unspoken income supplements, and a bevy of deferrals or exemptions. The lowest quintile doesn't have these things. They're paying for rich retired people as we speak. They're indulging in heavily taxed pasttimes such as lotteries, gambling, alcohol, and cigarettes.
Should we perhaps collect them together in a camp of some sort to stop them from dying young, paying too much in taxes, and subsidising my retirement and yours? Or, my alternative, is stop these unfair taxes against that lowest quintile and allow the retirees to indulge pleasurably in their land, meadows, investments, and savings without requiring the working stupid to subsidise them?
