Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
I am neither of the left wing nor the right but I do sometimes wonder about many people railing against so-called 'austerity' measures without taking into account rising national debt too.
I'm all for austerity as a tool for servicing our national debt as long as those who have the most, pay their share.

Sadly, austerity has meant that people too ill to work have been found fit for work by private companies whose job it is to cut the numbers on disability benefits, then found dead.

Austerity has resulted in the bedroom tax, where people with spare bedrooms are told to move to smaller dwellings to free up larger housing for those who need it. Sadly, the number of smaller accommodations available is massively less than required, meaning people can't move to smaller places and are forced to pay the bedroom tax.

Austerity has resulted in zero-hours contracts being more widely given. The ONS has recently said that anyone working one hour per fortnight on these contracts is classed as employed. It gives the illusion that less people are unemployed, though people are being forced into jobs on these contracts or JSA will be stopped, yet many have been made worse off by zero hours contracts that pay less than JSA.

Ok, that might all be fair enough in the name of austerity, so let's have a look at the other end of the rectum.

Income tax for the highest earners cut. There is an argument that if high earners aren't forced to pay too much, they'll be less inclined to avoid tax. Try doing that if you're earning a low wage. Whether the tax cut is successful in retrieving more tax is open to debate. For me, the likelihood is that it isn't. If you can dodge tax, you will regardless of your income tax level.

That leads nicely to tax evasion and avoidance. This costs the economy far more than benefit fraud and overseas aid, and is worth significantly more the exchequer than the paltry amounts saved by screwing the disabled and unemployed. What is Britain doing to rectify this? Reducing HMRC staff so less are able to moniter and chase those guilty. Appealing to the EU to make Britain exempt from EU legislation on tax avoidance, progressing to potentially leaving the EU to avoid this legislation.

In short, austerity has been specifically designed to screw the worst off in this country while allowing the most wealthy to make even more money and avoid tax.