Friday 22 March 2013

Big Government = Big Cost

Lest we forget, history shows this equation to be true:

Big Government = big cost and usually poor decisions

The "poor decisions" bit is subjective, and I won't deal with it.

However, "big cost" is easy to quantify.  Luckily for me Ross Clark writing in "The Spectator" has done the job brilliantly - see here.

He says that over the past year (2012) he spent £36,048 on his family, and £47,582 in tax (direct and indirect).

He summarises succinctly:
"I just happen to have looked through my bank statements and started to wonder why the government can’t do what I, and an awful lot of other people, have managed to do over the past few years: trim a little here and there, do without the foreign holiday, shop around for bargains and generally get my spending down without sleeping in a tent and ceasing to eat."
Here, here.

Nearly all investment is coloured by tax implications.  Is this truly a way to make an economy competitive?  History doesn't support this notion.

And please don't think that an independent Scotland would be immune from such mismanagement - by any party!