Colwyn, interesting information and views indeed, sadly you are probably right about it continuing but I live in hope! What I was not considering and you rightly stressed is the drop in Corporate Taxes (I believe based on the "Myth" that it encourages investment).
Yes, Madmart, I too have noticed over the years that the highest brackets seem to have been abandoned and the thresholds dropped for middle income earners. So, far form moving the tax thresholds upwards and small increases for the highest earners the opposite has been implemented.
Stealth taxation is increasing at an alarming rate, and it goes back to the view that we are in a sick Society where subterfuge and outright lies are considered ok and there are no true ethics in business any more. I wonder how many people still don't realise that when they pay insurance the Government steals 5% of their payments as "tax"!
Self employment most definitely provides one with a raft of hidden benefits and enables you to play the tax game quite blatantly! I worked for a small Company for a while where the owner even tried to claim his Winnebago as a business expense! Who hasn't been out with a friend who owned their own business and asked for a receipt -- I wonder why
One can argue that a self employed individual has all the risk, (which they can insure against) but by the same token poor management over which an employee has little control can easily put one out of work as once happened to me!
I would like to make clear when I started this thread it was to get a feeling of peoples views and to explore ideas, it was not at any time meant to be a discussion on Benefits per se, that is a different subject. I am sad to say that there are "benefit cheats and scroungers" out there, but I believe most people on Benefits struggle, and some actually suffer deteriorating health because they simply are not as good as managing the small income they get. There was no intent to say that lowering tax was a cure for the Benefit system, just one of many things to help the poor generally.
If we can get people to be more confident in the future at no increased costs to industry, can change our direction to more vocational training and become a nation of makers and doers rather than administrators and servicing that would be a good start?