Barack Obama has been re-elected. Had there been no superstorm Sandy, he might not have been, but there was and he now has four more years. He didn’t do very much to deserve re-election, showing more concern with his notion of ‘fairness’ than with the need to get the US economy going on with its main task of creating wealth and jobs.
In the UK, too, there is almost an obsession with taxes. The media, especially the BBC and the Times, focus on the big firms that locate their activities in low-tax jurisdictions, as they are entitled to. The use of the rules provided by governments to lower tax exposure is called tax avoidance and is within the law. It is being deliberately conflated with illegal non-declaration of income and profits, which is evasion and is illegal.
Those who support these campaigns seem to think that our problems require more taxes to be paid, and that if government can only spend more of our money that we are currently spending ourselves, then somehow everything will improve.
I disagree. Improvement will come through lower taxes and lighter regulations that make enterprise a worthwhile and rewarding activity. Alas, I see no signs in the US with its re-elected president, or in the UK with its hamstrung coalition government, that anyone in positions of authority is about to undertake the measures that are required. I hope I am wrong.
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Madsen Pirie 