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We don't plan to be poor, and all wish to be rich. When someone claims that extra £30 a week we feel it's our money because we can visualise it in our minds.

We don't plan to be poor, and all wish to be rich. When someone claims that extra £30 a week we feel it's our money because we can visualise it in our minds. When a rich person finds a way to not pay tax, it feels more like it's their money to begin with and it is taken from them, and we ourselves wouldn't like to lose out on millions.

roryisok 9y ago
I don't feel that way. I feel much more angry about rich people dodging taxes than relatively poor people cheating on benefits.
- finaliteration 9y ago
  Especially given that benefit “cheating” isn’t nearly as widespread as people tend to think it is. The percentage of benefit payout errors (not just fraud but overpayments for other reasons including fraud) in the US is typically in the single digits, whereas public perception seems to be that anyone using any sort of welfare program is cheating and doesn’t deserve it.
  - roryisok 9y ago
    > whereas public perception seems to be that anyone using any sort of welfare program is cheating and doesn’t deserve it. I think this is it. Even being on benefits in the first place is considered scrounging by some. I'd much rather see someone on minimum wage manage to get a free medical card than someone making £100k a year find a way to avoid paying tax on their holiday home. I find it hard to believe I'm in the minority.
- jlebrech 9y ago
  the system is also designed in such a way that the rich have legal loopholes whereas the poor have to break the law.
  - vixen99 9y ago
    And the poor would use those loopholes just as eagerly as the rich if they could. You read the rules and obey them, in such a way to minimize your tax bill. Would anyone deny that there are very few sentient people who does not do this or send ex gratia payments to the tax authorities? Suspected infringements are a matter a) for the courts and b) for lawmakers to revise the evidently lax (if so it's thought) legislation .
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- d4rti 9y ago
  Yep. Every penny dodged is a penny an honest taxpayer has to pay extra. Why should I pay for those who shirk their taxes?
vixen99 9y ago
There's probably also a touch of Milton Friedman's truism that “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as they spend their own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as they use their own”. I guess there are a few exceptions to 'nobody' but cynics would say that most politicians probably don't qualify.

roryisok 9y ago

I don't feel that way. I feel much more angry about rich people dodging taxes than relatively poor people cheating on benefits.

finaliteration 9y ago
Especially given that benefit “cheating” isn’t nearly as widespread as people tend to think it is. The percentage of benefit payout errors (not just fraud but overpayments for other reasons including fraud) in the US is typically in the single digits, whereas public perception seems to be that anyone using any sort of welfare program is cheating and doesn’t deserve it.
- roryisok 9y ago
  > whereas public perception seems to be that anyone using any sort of welfare program is cheating and doesn’t deserve it. I think this is it. Even being on benefits in the first place is considered scrounging by some. I'd much rather see someone on minimum wage manage to get a free medical card than someone making £100k a year find a way to avoid paying tax on their holiday home. I find it hard to believe I'm in the minority.
jlebrech 9y ago
the system is also designed in such a way that the rich have legal loopholes whereas the poor have to break the law.
- vixen99 9y ago
  And the poor would use those loopholes just as eagerly as the rich if they could. You read the rules and obey them, in such a way to minimize your tax bill. Would anyone deny that there are very few sentient people who does not do this or send ex gratia payments to the tax authorities? Suspected infringements are a matter a) for the courts and b) for lawmakers to revise the evidently lax (if so it's thought) legislation .
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
d4rti 9y ago
Yep. Every penny dodged is a penny an honest taxpayer has to pay extra. Why should I pay for those who shirk their taxes?

vixen99 9y ago

There's probably also a touch of Milton Friedman's truism that “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as they spend their own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as they use their own”. I guess there are a few exceptions to 'nobody' but cynics would say that most politicians probably don't qualify.