Tax System Explained in Beer

[The_Equalizer]

I once had a driving instructor who was an alcoholic although I only twigged after he was sacked. It made for some great driving lessons including interesting A roads where I was 'instructed' to speed. Oddly he looked like DC Tosh Lines from The Bill:

Tosh Lines

who sadly was also an alcoholic in real life.

[gingerjedi]

A bit like the debate on Question Time about the tories marriage tax proposals.

I'm not convinced about the plans myself, but the Labour chap was basically saying it was taking money from single people and giving it to married people and labelling single people as "second class citizens" in the process...

Someone else also pointed out that the current system favours single parents and parents that choose to live apart which makes married cohabiting people 2nd class citizens.

If we are to have a fair system then I suggest they treat everyone as an individuals when it comes to family tax credit, the current system penalises my wife and child because I earn money and live with them.

[Troll]

It is important not to lump all single parents together. There is a big difference between the 16 year old girls who deliberately get pregnant as a lifestyle chioce and others who find themselves raising children alone because Dad has got killed in Afghan or has done a bunk because he couldn't handle the responsibility.

Of course having two good loving parents will be better for the child but sometimes one good is better than two bad and it is not for the Government to cast judgement.

I'm afraid that as a government, part of your remit is to decide where the allocation of resources go to & to do that you have to declare preferences for certain lifestyles and target the resources accordingly.

New Labour long ago abandoned all absolutes in favour of an all things are equal policy all wrapped in a label of "fairness".

Now governments cannot be all things to all people all of the time so someone is going to have to loose out -under Labour it was the traditional family & you may think the same sex & single parent family model is of the same value to society as the more traditional male + female family but I and others will disagree

[Sysman]

My maths lecturer at university always used to explain maths problems in terms of beer - he was an alcoholic.

FTFY.

He knew his audience

P.S. I've seen the explanation before, except it used the cost of lunch rather than the cost of beer.

[BoredBloke]

On QT the point that single parents get benefits that married couples do not seemed to get lost in the debate

[centurian]

On QT the point that single parents get benefits that married couples do not seemed to get lost in the debate

The point of both examples is that whenever some cash is available - if people see that one group is "getting" more money than them from the change, then somehow it's "unfair".

Couples are already heavily disadvantaged by the tax and benefit system - you can't pool your income for tax purposes (income shifting aside), but you have to pool it for benefits assessment The tory proposal, for all its failings, doesn't "give" money to married people - it just goes part of the way to redressing the imbalance.

[scooterscot]

Did you make all that up yourself, or do you want to credit someone for it?

Credit goes to:


David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

[VectraMan]

I'm afraid that as a government, part of your remit is to decide where the allocation of resources go to & to do that you have to declare preferences for certain lifestyles and target the resources accordingly.

I've never liked the idea of the tax system being used for social engineering. Treat everybody equally, and the problems go away. Maybe that means the non-working wife of a banker can claim the same benefits as a single mother, but that's not a worse inequality than a lot of what happens now.

It seems to me that the argument about encouraging marriage because married couples stay together and are better parents is deeply flawed. It could equally be said that people who stay together and are good parents are more likely to be married.

This is what worries me about The Conservatives. There's still pleanty of time for them to say something really stupid and lose the election. And we need them to win.

[George Parr]

I'm afraid that as a government, part of your remit is to decide where the allocation of resources go to & to do that you have to declare preferences for certain lifestyles and target the resources accordingly.

New Labour long ago abandoned all absolutes in favour of an all things are equal policy all wrapped in a label of "fairness".

Now governments cannot be all things to all people all of the time so someone is going to have to loose out -under Labour it was the traditional family & you may think the same sex & single parent family model is of the same value to society as the more traditional male + female family but I and others will disagree

You completely misundersand my point. I don't belive that having kids on the state as a lifestyle choice is right and I would like to see the benefits system reformed so that this is a less appealing option.

What I do object to is the labelling of all single parents as less valuable members of society. This is more insulting than the money aspect. I have known quite a few single parents, who I might add are in that situation not through choice but through circumstance, who are working extremely hard to give their kids a decent upbringing and do not deserve the kind of sniping that seems to come around every time an election is looming.

I might add that I have been married for over 20 years and to have had a tax break would have been useful especially in the early days when money was very tight but to be given this at the expense of some of the hardest working people who are trying to do the best by their kids- no thanks.

Oh and BTW I'm no fan of Labour.

[centurian]

Credit goes to:
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

Except he didn't write it

http://davidk.myweb.uga.edu/

No-one really knows who the original author was

http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/howtaxes.asp