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No, the welfare state doesn't receive "the largest fraction" of your taxes. Thinking this is a bit of a meme in the UK. The largest category of spending is actu

No, the welfare state doesn't receive "the largest fraction" of your taxes. Thinking this is a bit of a meme in the UK. The largest category of spending is actually the state pension (which is partly funded by direct revenue), this isn't welfare. The actual amounts that go towards helping people who actually need help in the UK is relatively small. Unemployment benefits vanishingly small. Even when unemployment was high, the total spending barely surpassed a few billion (in real terms, they haven't increased since the 70s or something ludicrous). Disability is a large category, although some of this in-work people, but a big issue over the past ten years has been implementation of UC...this cost £12bn (the implementation of UC i.e. the amount handed out to contractors was 25%+ of what was actually given to claimant...Duncan-Smith had a neuralgia about "scroungers"). Tax credits are a large category but these are semi-universal and made to people in work. How they can be distinguished from a subsidy to companies is unclear. So the actual net effect isn't that clear. The UK has a relatively small welfare state (this is apparent if you actually talk to anyone on benefits...in the pandemic some people realised for the first time that welfare state wasn't actually that generous...and then we got a massive in-work subsidy program, I am guessing that if you had been on UC subject to regular inquiries by the DWP to get a grand total of £80/week or whatever, the state lavishing subsidies on someone making £200/day was...odd). The NHS has pretty poor outcomes for a developed country. It is provided at low-cost (interestingly, about half the size of the public health system in the US) but the results are very poor (politically, doctor's unions have had very strong lobbying, so when spending increases it has typically gone into the back pocket of doctors with output unchanged). Private healthcare is better. Btw, if you are seeing a trend here: the UK's problem is that there is a massive political demand for subsidies, regardless of whether you are in need or not, but 40% of adults pay no income tax. There is a massive disconnect.

growse 5y ago
> No, the welfare state doesn't receive "the largest fraction" of your taxes. Thinking this is a bit of a meme in the UK. The largest category of spending is actually the state pension (which is partly funded by direct revenue), this isn't welfare. The actual amounts that go towards helping people who actually need help in the UK is relatively small. Hmm. On my tax breakdown from HMRC, "Welfare" comes top at ~22%, whereas "State Pensions" comes third at ~12% (Health is second at ~20%). Are you saying HMRC is wrong, or am I misinterpreting this? It does say this is just for income tax and NI, but I'm not aware of income/NI being specifically ringfenced and spent in a different way to, say, VAT. > The NHS has pretty poor outcomes for a developed country. It is provided at low-cost (interestingly, about half the size of the public health system in the US) but the results are very poor (politically, doctor's unions have had very strong lobbying, so when spending increases it has typically gone into the back pocket of doctors with output unchanged). Private healthcare is better. I'm not sure there's a consesus on this. The most charitable interpretation I can gather from skimming the research (e.g. https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6326 https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6326) is that "It's complex. The NHS does some things badly, and it does some things well, and it generally spends less than its peers". If we accept that, then the next question is naturally "what do we want to change" and "how do we do that". Maybe if the NHS spends less than its peers, we need to fund it more to get better outcomes (I wouldn't be against this)? I also don't disagree necessarily that "Private healthcare is better" for some things, but as I said elsewhere, they're not the ones who have to deal with emergency trauma cases, so it's not a like-for-like comparison.

growse 5y ago

> No, the welfare state doesn't receive "the largest fraction" of your taxes. Thinking this is a bit of a meme in the UK. The largest category of spending is actually the state pension (which is partly funded by direct revenue), this isn't welfare. The actual amounts that go towards helping people who actually need help in the UK is relatively small. Hmm. On my tax breakdown from HMRC, "Welfare" comes top at ~22%, whereas "State Pensions" comes third at ~12% (Health is second at ~20%). Are you saying HMRC is wrong, or am I misinterpreting this? It does say this is just for income tax and NI, but I'm not aware of income/NI being specifically ringfenced and spent in a different way to, say, VAT. > The NHS has pretty poor outcomes for a developed country. It is provided at low-cost (interestingly, about half the size of the public health system in the US) but the results are very poor (politically, doctor's unions have had very strong lobbying, so when spending increases it has typically gone into the back pocket of doctors with output unchanged). Private healthcare is better. I'm not sure there's a consesus on this. The most charitable interpretation I can gather from skimming the research (e.g. https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6326 https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6326) is that "It's complex. The NHS does some things badly, and it does some things well, and it generally spends less than its peers". If we accept that, then the next question is naturally "what do we want to change" and "how do we do that". Maybe if the NHS spends less than its peers, we need to fund it more to get better outcomes (I wouldn't be against this)? I also don't disagree necessarily that "Private healthcare is better" for some things, but as I said elsewhere, they're not the ones who have to deal with emergency trauma cases, so it's not a like-for-like comparison.