Tag: Poor

Make tax avoidance illegal

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If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?

Many people use loopholes in the law to avoid paying taxes. By moving their funds offshore for instance or using accountants to hide their money, and filing tax returns with lots of expenses included so their tax charge is reduced. In this way poorer people on income tax, paying as they earn, can pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes than those who are richer than them.

Avoidance is legal, evasion is not. Quote:

Tax avoidance is the legitimate exploitation of tax loopholes to reduce the individual or business’ tax liability whereas tax evasion is the illegal evasion of taxes properly due.

So why do we allow this? Especially the most egregious examples of avoidance? Yes, there should be legitimate reasons to cover normal expenses, but surely we could cut down on loopholes. Maybe every country could have the same tax rates, so no one can get away with it. I understand some countries offer lower taxes to increase their income, but there might be other ways of doing this. I think it would be difficult but not impossible?

It can’t be right that about 80 men have more wealth when its added up than half the world’s population. In other words 80 people have about the same as 4,000,000,000 people! Once you look at it that way it’s not really fair is it?

A house with a studio attached

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Write about your dream home.

I need more space. I could build a small studio on the side of my house if I had the money and planning permission. It would be somewhere that didn’t affect the fruit trees in the garden. I would move all my art equipment and works in. That would make more room for all the other things we collected over the years.

I’d also insulate it and add better windows and doors. Maybe underfloor heating.

My income is too low so this is all a pipe dream. Unless of course a Millionaire or Billionaire reads this and feels like making a generous donation? (or I might win the lottery). I would take over the empty house next door to offer accommodation for friends and family and make a gallery downstairs. Then I’d also add a lift to save my knees and hips that are starting to ache more and more x.

Jubilee time

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Jubilation and celebrations continue throughout the land. Not everyone is a royalist, but I think 70 as head of state is quite important. I don’t have any bunting or flags up. I do think that some of the money given to the crown should be used to support the poorest in society. Trickle down, the idea that giving to the rich let’s money get down to the poorest doesn’t work. People with money put extra money in the bank. People with no money will spend any extra, probably locally because they can’t afford to go anywhere else.

So congratulations ma’am, enjoy your celebration. But please government, try and be a bit kinder to the poorest in society, don’t keep overlooking them.

Cold

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Oh its a bit cold today. There is sleet falling and its very grey overhead. I’m sitting shivering a bit, I have to pay my fuel bills soon and I’m trying to minimise how much I use. So the heating is on a timer and I’m wearing a cardigan to keep warm. The temperature inside is about 17°C (outside its about 5°C). But it’s been another mild winter. It’s only been frosty a few times and we’ve had no lying snow. I’ve got things to do so I can leave the heating off till later. When I was younger I wasn’t bothered by the cold. I lived in house with no central heating, and we just had single glazing. So I’m a lot better off than I used to be.

I do think about the majority of the people on the planet who are not as lucky as me. It’s a sad situation where a few billionaires can have as much money as half the earth’s population. In the meantime my hubby just turned a light on, but left one on in the kitchen…. Bah humbug!

Money….

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Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they are despised.

George Orwell.

Well, I wanted to say something about money (or the lack of it), and then I saw this quote. I also found the map of deprivation in and around the area where I live.

I don’t mind admitting this area is poor. Lots of jobs have gone over the years as local industry has closed. Families that had three generations working in the same industry together have lost such a lot. Not through their own fault, but through lack of support and outsourcing of work. Factories have closed, and been demolished, when perhaps they could have been reused. With global warming they wouldn’t necessarily have been able to keep going, but something could have happened to make people’s lives better.

What is missing? Money, investment, something more substantial than the short term, selfish, unfair world that we seem to live in. When governments fail to help and support their people, and rely instead on charity we have come to a bad point in life. The poor become the despised for not ‘getting on’. People start to identify undeserving poor, and blame them for their miseries instead of seeing that the system is broken. When people who care are called snowflake or whatever other derogatory comment that can be hurled at them, we are in a bad place.