If a wealth tax brought in zero revenue to the government, would people still support it? If yes, why?

[percypiggy200]

I’m curious and I’d love to know people’s reasoning.

They got captured by Brexit debate and older voters. They used to understand how to generate wealth but were often callous about distributing it. Now they don’t seem to have good ideas on either.

Yeah, reading is better than dreaming up nonsense. Like I say, try it sometime.

Job vacancies have been falling long before the last GE, from highs in May 2022.
AI has also had an impact but 5% unemployment and more people in work are 2 facts you shouldn't really be able to argue against.

@GeneralPeter We have capitulated to older voters far too much and that has had a big impact on productivity. I can’t see that changing though.

Yes, you need some money but this money needs to be carefully targeted and related to very specific interventions that have a chance of actually working. You need buy in from the families themselves and society at large.

I believe pretending that the answer to this lies in simply greater taxation and more spending on benefits is immoral and detrimental to society. There needs to be a clear plan with specific interventions that have been trialled and well researched. At this point you can go to the taxpayer and ask for funding for this very important purpose. Instead we are just throwing money at the problem willy nilly and gaming the poverty measure knowing full well that we aren't even scratching the surface of the issue.

And I daren’t mention Brexit in case I’m accused of dwelling on the past 😃

At some point people will need to look forward. How can you not?

And some schools have rubbish results for their looked after children. What is the difference? Does the school that achieved more success have more money? I bet they don't.

As I stated earlier, I'm not opposed to the kinds of things you are referencing but this should all be part of a strategic plan that's been properly researched and has evidence of success at a smaller scale. It should be carefully targeted and organised in a way that gets most value for the taxpayer and most impact for those in need.

This absolutely isn't what the government is doing. It's throwing tax payer money at follies like lifting the two child cap because that will game the child poverty stats which are only interested in household income Vs the median. The statistics doesn't care that the underlying inequality exist and these kids will still have worse outcomes.

Absolutely not.

The only reason to do so would be purely ideologically-based.

Its only by looking back, can we avoid and learn from the mistakes of the past and try to rectify them.

Brexit was a Tory idea, they gave us that and its outcomes, for that reason, i would never trust them with Govt again, same with Truss, our borrowing costs have never recovered.

Two huge mistakes which they have never acknowledged.

Sure we have to move forward but many don't seem to want too, its all about how bad Labour are doing, nothing positive to say.

Other than @Marshmallow4545

Agree. I was really hopeful that this Labour government would change it. They could have done: they aren’t especially dependant on the wealthy old vote, they had the prize of winning the young-and-middle-age vote possibly permanently by delivering for them where the Tories failed, they had a dull-but-quietly ruthless (I thought, looking at how he edged out the leftists) leader who said he wanted growth above all else, and had the Nixon-to-China advantage of being Labour on growth, and a massive majority. It’s been so frustrating to see them fail so early and miserably.

People will be looking back at Labour after they’re out talking about their mistakes. They’re already in the mire politically.

Hopefully the GE will actually look to incentivising people.

It’s never going to happen so literally a pointless question.

@GeneralPeter I feel the window to actually try and turn things around now is so narrow. Very depressing

I don’t think the understanding is there. You could see that pre GE anyway.

Sorry, I don't have anything positive to say about Labour either I'm afraid.

I feel so depressed about this Government. And I am a former Labour voter. They seem to be scrabbling with panic in the dark. They had 14 years to develop coherent sensible fiscal policies. WTF have they been doing?

It’s all so frustrating because we know Rachel and Kier are surrounded by armies of advisors who are second year grad scheme kids from the right universities. They suffer from group think and ideology. They will be swerving around based on daily poll numbers.

There is no vision or strategic thinking. Their answer to everything will be to set up yet another working group/committee and produce a report. The report will then be socialised until consensus is reached meaning that the least ambitious proposal is carried forward. These people are pathetic.

I actually think Badenoch is starting to stabilise the Tory party. Only Jenrick appears to remain as a hangover from the kamikaze years - and I think he’ll be jettisoned due to his obvious disloyalty.

I believe that they will remember they used to be the party of the economy and within the next 3 years we may get some bold thinking coming from them which will win them the next election. I would not be surprised if it was they who suggested we go back into the Single Market and Customs Union.

What jobs and economic growth is that creating?

You need to make it easier to employ people and easier to get rid of useless people.

Well investment in housing and infrastructure usually results in jobs & growth. Getting rid of the cliff edges and unfreezing tax bands would encourage people like me to work more hours which should boost productivity & growth. Less money tied up in housing should hopefully find its way into other sectors of the economy. As I said I don’t have all the ideas and no idea if the above would be enough. What would you do?

Sickening.

I think you’re right. I thought Starmer and Reeves got it, and with a big majority could deliver growth as their top priority.

But Reeves made herself hostage to fortune (OBR/bond markets) and compounds her error by talking endlessly another how grim it all is.

I also wonder why Starmer acts as if he’s a hostage to his backbenchers on spending. I guess it’s two problems: he isn’t personally sure what Labour is for, and he hasn’t made the case convincingly that the route to all the nice things is through fixing growth first.

Well these posts are oddly personal.

I see we are slipping back into 'The Tories Were Worse' argument.
It's a useful distraction, granted, but it doesn't address the question of what are the 'grown-ups' doing to makevthings better? They had all the answers in opposition after all.

I take it personally when fellow citizens deliberately work overseas to avoid paying tax. It is sickening, to me.