Major UK issues that won’t be solved by the `election on 4 July 2024 – too much taxation and debt causes sickness – compounded by high energy costs that cause more poverty and sickness
Regular readers will know that I regard taxation as theft. The bigger the government the bigger the theft. That theft is manifested in taxation and national debt. I regard the level of taxation as an indication of the degree of big government – that is, the level of socialism/communism that imposes stress that results in worse health and well-being.
Incentivising a free people with the rewards for being smart and working hard is anathema to socialists. It is their view that the government is the sole source of not just truth, but where “society” should be herded towards various economic activities.
As with most wester economies, UK spending on healthcare has ballooned o a per capita basis over the last several decades as the huge bureaucracy associated with socialised health care combines with rising prices for drugs swamp the standard of delivery of care.
From here:
UK Government Total Spending Chart Gallery (ukpublicspending.co.uk)
We have this chart:
If you go back to 1990, health spending was just 50 billion pounds a year – nevertheless, just looking at the last 15 years, health care spending has doubled from 100 billion pounds in 2009 to over 200 billion pounds a year.
The UK had a population of 62.2 million in 2009 – per capita spending was a little over 1,600 pounds a year. The population is now 68 million and per capita spending is approaching 3,000 pounds per capita. Population growth over 15 years around 10%, health spending up 88%. General inflation was around 68% since 2009. £1 in 2009 → 2024 | UK Inflation Calculator (in2013dollars.com)
Yu would think that a smart government would offer incentives to bring down the costs of bureaucracy and medical treatments – drugs and devices. Amongst that 200 billion pounds, how much could these costs be reduced by, say, offering a 10% reward to the smart people that occupy the length and breadth of the UK for saving a billion pounds a year – forever. Pay the smart person 10% of the cost savings the first year to reduce administration costs via improvements in procurement practices and logistics! Similarly, why doesn’t the government incentivise researchers to come up with higher quality ad cheaper drug prices than big pharma?
Was there a single sentence in the last debate between the outgoing and incoming Prime Ministers last night abut hospital waiting lists or a few hundred thousand excess deaths or poisoned blood or the adverse events from the experimental and badly made C19 mRNA injections or the stalled C19 enquiry that has already cost 100’s of millions of pounds compared to the pittance paid out Io compensation to families of those killed or those whose lives are forever altered? Of course not. Instead we have promises of kick-starting the economy by building an extra 1.5 million houses on the crowded island – for a cost of 421.5 BILLION POUNDS (assuming an average price of 281,000 pounds per house). It’s only money and it’s not theirs, right? More debt to be paid for with more taxes. For context, UK GDP is around 2.27 trillion pounds, it has national debt of 3 million pounds and is running a deficit of 121 billion pounds a year.
The numbers reflect the epic failure of the UK government over the last several decades. And the incoming Labour government wants to double down on these failures with even more of the same.
That’s not all, f course, lots of “green” stuff and spending on councils who waste money on “green” stuff and then go bankrupt.
Socialist countries, like the UK, force their people to pay around 40-50% of whatever activity they engage into the government – as measured by total tax take to GDP ratios. The UK is not as bad as France or Denmark who make their people work 2.5 days a week for their government – (50% tax to GDP) – the UK only asks for two days a week (40^ of tax to GDP). When you are working more than a day a week for your government, you are in a socialist country.
It is my belief that the higher the tax burden, the more the stress that is placed on people and the sicker thy get. A health system seeks to alleviate the manifestations of the poor health that over-taxation causes.
I have previously pointed out another feature of the shocking costs of “green” energy as a result of abysmal government policy.
From here:
It had this table for household energy prices:
Two things to note about that table. Ne is the “standing charge of a daily rate, where the daily rate for electricity is double that of natural gas – why would that be? The other is the unit rate – electricity is fur times the price per unit (one kWh) – why would that be?
Let’s check out UK energy production. - from here:
What are fossil fuels? Where does the UK get its energy from? - BBC News
“Of the electricity generated in the UK in 2022: 40.8% came from fossil fuels 56.2% from low-carbon sources, including 41.5% from renewables and 14.7% from nuclear.”
That’s the BBC. Here’s Wiki:
Energy in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“In 2022, the United Kingdom's total energy supply (TES) was primarily composed of natural gas, contributing 39.4%, followed by oil at 34.8%, nuclear power at 8.1%, and coal at 3.2%. Biofuels and waste contributed 8.9%, while other renewable sources such as wind, solar, and hydro collectively accounted for 5.6% of …”
Pick the bones out of that! “Renewables” is either 41% or 6%.
I will leave aside natural gas for now and just take a quick look at oil and petrol (gasoline).
Here’s a table showing how much oil comes from the North Sea and what it converts to in terms of petrol (gasoline) and diesel).
Data from here:
North Sea oil production to grow 8.3% by 2020 - Offshore Technology (offshore-technology.com) – a little dated (2020).
In a barrel of oil - Energy Education
“From the image, it is apparent that vehicle fuels make up a large portion of the final product. In liters, gasoline makes up about 73 liters of the final 170, diesel and heating oil make up about 40 liters...”
Caveat – I am not an expert, so the numbers may be off because of different measurement methods that I have misused!
That’s production. Now how abut consumption. Interestingly, the consumption of diesel has increased a lot, and the consumption of petrol has gone down a lot.
Completely switched over!
From here:
Volume of petrol and diesel consumed in the UK by month (racfoundation.org)
Here’s a table of the start and end points for consumption in liters:
Petrol (gasoline) North Sea Oil production = 23.25 billion liters a year, consumption 17.1 billion litres a year. A surplus of over 6 billion liters.
Diesel North Sea oil production = 13.3 billion litres a year, consumption = 29.3 billion litres a year. A deficit of 16 billion liters a year.
There has been a little reaction to this:
A drop of a billion liters.
The diesel shortfall has to be made up with imports – further complicated by the Russia/Ukraine war (Russia used to supply a fifth of UK oil).
Trends in UK imports and exports of fuels - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
“The UK imported £30.0 billion of oil in 2021 (£17.6 billion crude oil, £12.4 billion refined oil), and exported £28.3 billion of oil (£17.9 billion crude oil, £10.4 billion refined oil).”
Makes sense? As I say I am not an oil trader or an expert – looks like book entries r trading in physical il to me!
Ok, let’s cut to the chase. How much tax is there n a liter of petrol (gasoline) in the UK.
From here:
UK pump prices (racfoundation.org)
See that? Half of the price of petrol (gasoline) and diesel is tax. You ned to invert hat to see the full effect. Out of a single pound, 50 pence is the cost (with profit margin and taxation taken at the corporate level of the producers – including recent “windfall” profit super taxes) and 50 pence is tax. So the price of petrol and diesel is double what it should be. (Side note, funny how thy call it “windfall” profits, right?).
So, a journey of say 200 miles in a car that uses 40 miles per gallon at a cost of 6 pounds fifty per gallon (converted from 1.44 pounds per liter) is 32 pound2 instead of 16 pounds. What else could be done with those 16 pounds that government has “stolen”? Clothes for the kids, private health insurance, savings, a gift for someone?
It pays to bk in advance for a train ticker for a 200-mile journey from London to York.
LONDON TO YORK BY TRAIN from £22.50 | What to see on the way (seat61.com)
“If you buy a ticket on the day or want to stay flexible Anytime = £168.10 one-way or £336.20 return, good for any train you like. Super Off-Peak = £71.70 one-way or £143.40 return.”
How much of that train ticket price is tax on the diesel used to power the 125 mph trains that do the 200 miles in a few hours???
I have not gone into the other major issue – criminal immigration. The outgoing Conservative government wants to deport the problem to Rwanda – well, 600,000 of the 5 million criminals inside the UK. I do not see why the criminals would want to go to Rwanda or what would keep them there. Personally, I would deport them – as per international law – to the first safe country they crossed into or to their home countries if there was no genuine need for them to leave for asylum or refugee purposes.
Suffice to say, the issues raised in the areas of health and energy point to a failed nation state that will only ever over tax and borrow to make up the shortfall on poor quality spending. Taxation and the increasing cost of interest n the debt borrowed has to be reversed.
I would start with abolishing VAT – a uniquely European tax imposed on the UK 50 years ago. VAT = Value Added Taz and hits the poorest the hardest. It is a regressive tax that now provides half of all government income. I would also abolish all customs and excise duties on all products – including tobacco and alcohol. People are adults they make their own decisions. If the government will not put health warnings o C19 injections, it should not put them on cigarettes or cigars or pipe tobacco.
To make up the shortfall of the loss of all this revenue, government spending o crap like subsidies for “renewables” and the National Health Service needs to be cut by at least 75%. Ve after these measures, a fiscal surplus need of 3% per annum needs to run for at least 25 years to reduce the national debt to that point where the interest burden does not cost more than every government department – except National Health.
That is why I will never stand for election or be elected!
I believe that reform is desperately needed in the UK – and in all OECD countries – a paradigm shift to let people keep their money rather than give it to “the Beast” – a beast that surely needs starving.
It is bad enough that people have their choices and opportunities truncated by taxation, it is made even worse by the incompetence of kakistocrats who just want to “play the game” of maintaining a status quo that promulgate a continued slide into ruin and bankruptcy of every nation state.
Onwards!!!
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It's seems to me that the medical insurance system is set up to have the people fund their own murders, just like Kissinger said. As an American, I read the AMA recommendations, and see nothing but chemical weapons in an arsenal of death and destruction. It is a downhill track straight from our paychecks to the insurance companies, to big-pharma and their corporate ownership. And we have Blackrock going around using public and private money to buy up all the real estate, thereby inflating the price of housing. Housing insurance and property taxes are designed to price out middle class home owners. Its total corporate warfare against the population. How can people still buy medical insurance after being poisoned with covid jabs? How can people continue to fund their enemies who have attacked them with biological and chemical weapons?