Where is All the Money Going?

 I do wonder why no-one has asked the question above before. Where exactly is all the money we give to government going?

Lets let's just step back a few decades, to the 1970s. Back then we paid a smaller proportion of our wage in overall taxation, but we got a lot more in services from the government.

Our armed services were massive. A vast Army was placed in Germany to counteract any threat from The Soviet Union, our Navy had several hundred ships available and on patrol around the World and our Airforce had a large number of aircraft available and several types of aircraft to chose from depending on the role.

We had a Nationalised Railway, Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, and National Distribution Networks of all of those), a National Health Service, a Welfare System, a Civil Defence Network, etc.

But over the the decades, these have been whittled away. Some more silently than others. 

Gas, Electricity and Water were sold off during the Thatcher years, with the Railways following later.

So, we lost the need to subsidise those industries when they were privatised. Or that should be the case.

The Army, Navy and Air Force have been reduced by each successive Government since the Seventies. The "Peace Dividend" provided by the fall of the Soviet Union was supposed to reduce the cost of employing a standing Army in Germany and "Force Multipliers" in the shape of more capable ships and aircraft in the Navy and Airforce should have also provided benefits as well as general reductions in numbers.

Then we come to the more silent reductions: We used to have a vast Civil Defence Network across the UK in case of War. If the war came home, they would aid the defence of the UK and co-ordinate assets across the country to repel aggressors and also plot the attacks and their aftermath in the case of a nuclear attack. Not that there was much else to do after nuclear Armageddon. 

That whole civil defence network has disappeared. The bunkers are defunct, the communications network closed down and the airspace auctioned off to private companies.

So why I ask, is the tax burden still so high?

If we've sold off all the utilities and their associated liabilities, is we've reduced the armed forces to a fraction of their former strength and we've eliminated an entire civil defence network. All that expenditure is no longer required. 

So why did the tax burden not reduce?

Is the burden of the NHS so great that it's eaten into the spare cash? Is the privatisation of GP services a poorly implemented  attempt to reduce that burden?

Has repaying government borrowing done the same? Have we borrowed so much is using up all that spare cash in repayments?

Are we paying too much to supranational organisations? Are we paying the EU and the UN so much money we've had remove our defensive capabilities to almost zero?

Where exactly is all that money that we did spend on important stuff actually going? 

Or, is it that the tax take has reduced, it's just that wages have shrunk so much the tax burden appears the same or greater than before?

Does anyone have stats on this at all?

Work No Longer Pays.

 How can it be that a joint household income of £40,000 before tax isn't enough to pay rent and bills? 

Between us, that's what myself and the wife earn. But between us, it seems it's not enough to rent a house, pay the bills and run a car. Right now we both don't have any spare cash, our disposable income has dried up. 

So much so that it looks like it's baked beans on toast for tea on a regular basis from now on. It's not a life, it's subsistence.

Right now I'm dreading the energy increases in the Autumn, because if it's anything like this spring's increase, then I won't earn enough to pay the bills. I have at most about £50 spare cash to spend on non-essentials.

It does make you wonder if work pays. Would we be better on benefit? 

There used to be a time when the Tories were the party of low taxes, of making work pay. But these days they've joined the homogenised morass of Social Democrat MPs in Parliament. Literally we do not have any choice in how we vote. Every party is bent on increasing taxes and environmental levies and stiffing the poor. 

Just what do you do if working no longer pays the bills? 

More importantly, why is this government policy? Why is it policy to add levies to energy? Surely renewables have had a decade of development and by now the technology should be mature and able to be installed and generate energy without subsidies? Or are we just spaffing money to big corporations for the sake of it? 

Fuel: why are we importing refined Diesel from abroad? Why are the refineries at Stanlow, Fawley, et al not back refining crude oil? 

Why are we paying more money to Government for less in the way of services? 

Why are we putting up with all of this shit?

Cucks, the lot of 'em and the Despair of the Politically Homeless.

 Why is it when I see any of the male contenders for the Tory top job, the only word that comes to mind is "Cuck". And I mean "Cuck", In the sense of he'd let someone else screw his wife. No Guts, no Gumption (good Northern Word that), a distinct lack of spherical object-da dangling where they should be. 

The number of contenders I would vote for if there was an election is exactly zero. 

I am politically homeless. None of the major parties reflect or respect my personal viewpoints. The Reform party is close, but I just can't bring myself to trust anyone in leadership at that party. Too posh, too "Gentleman's Club", way too close to being a bit Grammarschooly, a bit too "we know what's good for you". Still looking down on the working poor despite eschewing policies that say would benefit them and vying for their vote.

I want a party who's policies benefit everyone equally. No quotas, no positive discrimination, no "writing historic wrongs". Deal with the here and now, propose a future where everyone working towards that future reaps the benefit.

Government, Public, Rich, Poor, Corporations and Companies, Banks, Builders, Stock Markets and Socialists. 

I want Everyone to work towards the benefit of the country as a whole.

No me, me, me, no greed.

I want people that work against the benefit of the country to be penalised. Tax the greedy corporations that maximise profits and payouts for shareholders and pay poor wages. Reward those businesses that invest in workers, reward those that embrace competition and slam those that create cabals. We want low prices, but do it by doing business in a better way. Maximising profit at the expense of workers should be as socially unacceptable as paedophilia. Make them pay triple the standard rate of N.I. if they keep paying poor wages.

I want people that pay their fair share to be rewarded. I want companies that raise their workers out of poverty and away from in-work benefits to get tax breaks. 

I want us to work for the common good, not greed. 

I want us all digging in the same direction: out of this shitty hole we find ourselves in.