Comments by "Curious Crow" (@CuriousCrow-mp4cx) on "" video.

  1. Absolutely, because Singapore is largely a rentier economy, because its a glorified tax haven, that is run by an intergenerational dictatotship and oligarchy.
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  2. Its the size that makes it difficult, but if you follow the link in the descrption, you can replicate the chart by: 1.changing the year to the latest (2022) 2. Sorting the data by GDP per capita, descending in value 3. Selecting the UK and every country that has a larger GDP per capita than the UK. You will see that the percentage of tax vs GDP per Capita varies widely amongst those countries who are richer than us when measured by GDP per Capita. So Tax cuts, or low taxation are not magic beans that automatically makes economies more productive. Indeed, its the right amount of tax levied in the fairest ways, and spent in productive and efficient ways to incentivise, generate, and maintain economic activity according to the needs of a particular economy that determine its ability to produce asset wealth. The problem is that under neoliberal economics, the wealthy have been at war with the State, and have insisted the State leave everything to markets. And thats has got us to where we are now. The irony is that many of these better perfoming economies are high taxing economies, with different priorities than ours. And thats a Us problem. We have failed to deal with our problems that have been created because of our economic priorities. these issues essentially erode our ability to have an economy that meets our communal priorities. Instead, we have an economy that meets the needs of the asset wealthy, but neglects the needs of the majority who rely solely on being employed for a living. Wealth creation is important but only if it benefits everyone who creates it. And everyone pays taxes for that to happen. Taxation is a tool in that process, and the burden should equal the benefits gained. And right now, it does not. And that has to change, or we will continue to fall behind.
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  3. The numbers provided to the World Bank do not lie. There are many countries with higher GDP per capita and higher percentages of GDP in taxation. What Phil says is borne out by the facts. Why you are not asking why that is true is more strange than people wanting to pay tax to keep the public services they want. That's a belief problem, not a fact problem. Your beliefs don't match reality. And that is not a strong position to hold to. You need to question your assumptions. You can look at the data if you follow the link in the description, and then ask why people in Luxembourg with a GDP per capita far greater than the UK's tolerate a tax burden nearly a third higher than the UK? All the Nordic countries do as well. Denmark particularly sticks out. You see the tax burden is not the problem. It's what you get for it that is determinative. (And that position is seperate from its sustainability.) This is why each country needs to decide for itself what its priorities are. There are no universals here as every economy is different, as geography and demography really determine the hand one is dealt. There is no one globally perfect or even optimal framework. Humans are imperfect. But citizens have the right to choose what they want.
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  4. You can replicate the chart Phil is referring to by - following the link in the description of this video -setting the time scale to the latest year - Setting the sorting of countries to be by GDP per capita - and select only the UK and those countries that have larger GDP per capita than the UK. By doing this you will see that there is not correlation between between GDP per Capita and percentage of GDP spent on Tax. Low taxes do not stimulate economic growth. Economies that help the economy to be productive invest according to what they need to be economically productive. And the percentage of GDP deemed necessary varies widely, because not every country is the same, nor dealt the same hand. State-owned extractive enterprises based on profitable essential commodities like energy may have low taxation, but also have smaller private sectors. So, despite whst Billionaires like to suggest, taxation doesnt make people poorer. Missppent taxation does, because taxation is a communal investment to incentivise, generate, support and distribute productive economic activity. Productive economic activity generates returns for the whole economy, and not just assets to be hoarded by a small percentage of people. But we seem only to hear their subjective narrative because they are wealthy and powerful enough to control the narrative the public hears. And as someone plainly put it, the rich are not public intellectuals. You're not going to get the unvarnished truth.
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