Death and Taxes

So the latest budget has been announced and the main points the papers headlined were an increase on taxes on alcohol and cars. Fairly standard commodities that are easy to tax because they are relatively inelastic.

The taxes are of little concern to me really; I do not drive a car, and I am financially secure enough to afford paying an extra 4p on the pints that I drink. What bothers me really is the bullshit that goes along with tax increases like this.

The supposed reason behind increasing taxes on alcohol is to combat binge drinking. It is utterly ludicrous to suggest that increasing the price of alcohol by little more than 1% is going to curb Britain’s alcohol problem. It is not going to make an ounce of difference; people who drink excessively are going to continue to do so, they are just going to pay another 4p per pint to do it. The government know this and that is why they are imposing a tax. That’s all fine; the government need to raise revenue to run the country. What I can’t stand is that we are expected to swallow the nonsense that goes along with it. You’re not increasing taxes to curb binge drinking; you’re raising revenue in an effective manner. I know it; you know it; stop treating me like a fool by trying to say otherwise.

It’s the same thing with the car tax. A tax imposed on “the highest polluting cars,” which essentially means cars with big engines. What cars do we see most often that have big engines? Range Rovers etc. Who drives Range Rovers? Wealthy people do. Can wealthy people afford to pay an extra tax? Yes of course they can. The problem with this whole carbon emissions rubbish is that it just gives the government an excuse to tax us more and pretend they are trying to help the environment. Rubbish! It’s just an easy way to disguise more taxes.

Death and Taxes are the only 2 sure things in life. So tax us, just stop feeding me so much bullshit. It tastes awful.