| Beer and Tax 23:36 - Nov 28 with 3929 views | trulyblue |
Suppose that once a week, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.　
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every week and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20." Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free but what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33 but if they subtracted that from everybody's share then not only would the first four men still be drinking for free but the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.　
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fairer to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage. They decided to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (a100% saving).
The sixth man now paid £2 instead of £3 (a 33% saving).
The seventh man now paid £5 instead of £7 (a 28% saving).
The eighth man now paid £9 instead of £12 (a 25% saving).
The ninth man now paid £14 instead of £18 (a 22% saving).
And the tenth man now paid £49 instead of £59 (a 16% saving).　
Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free.　
But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got £1 out of the £20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got £10!"　
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a £1 too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"　
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"　
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.　
The next week the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important - they didn't have enough money between all of them to pay for even half of the bill!　
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.　
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible. |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 23:52 - Nov 28 with 3871 views | J2BLUE |
The rich man was happy with the arrangement? So unlike real life then for the most part? |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 23:56 - Nov 28 with 3863 views | mo_itfc |
The 3rd man is actually the richest, but his bank is in the Cayman Islands... |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 00:10 - Nov 29 with 3840 views | StNeotsBlue |
Ffs I don't know what is more disturbing, the fact you felt the need to type all that out or the fact I read it all.
A poor hypothetical analogy that doesn't make a lot of sense. |  | | |
| Beer and Tax on 00:13 - Nov 29 with 3825 views | factual_blue |
| Beer and Tax on 00:10 - Nov 29 by StNeotsBlue |
Ffs I don't know what is more disturbing, the fact you felt the need to type all that out or the fact I read it all.
A poor hypothetical analogy that doesn't make a lot of sense. |
It's been around for years. He's cut and pasted it.
It is, to put it mildly, ill-informed drivel. |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 00:15 - Nov 29 with 3824 views | wkj |
The fact that pubs generally make very little from wet stock now suggests that the bar owner will soon be claiming universal credit for running his, or her, business at a loss. |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 06:57 - Nov 29 with 3728 views | BlueBadger |
I liked the riposte to this that came round shortly afterwards.
'A politician, banker, nurse and disabled person are given a packet of biscuits. The banker takes 5, the politician takes 3 an then leans over to the nurse and says 'that cripple there is trying to steal your biscuits" |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 07:51 - Nov 29 with 3646 views | lowhouseblue |
mmmmm, beer. |  |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| Beer and Tax on 07:59 - Nov 29 with 3627 views | BloomBlue |
Interesting story but how did these people meet? For example how did the rich man meet the poor men?
Also was buying the poor men a beer the most beneficial use of money, some food maybe.
And what do 7, 8 & 9 do for a living? A bit context would be nice. |  | | |
| Beer and Tax on 08:01 - Nov 29 with 3618 views | Herbivore |
In reality the four poorest men are at the food bank trying to feed their kids, they're not at the pub. That's a terrible analogy and the kind of thing only a stupid person thinks is clever. |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 08:07 - Nov 29 with 3599 views | ElephantintheRoom |
Presumably no women went drinking because the government had stolen their pensions - and they had to carry on working?
Someone once had the bright idea that tax should be appropriate to the service provided. It was called the poll tax - and the idea that four people using local services should pay four times as much as one person led to riots and brought down the government.
Perhaps beer should be priced according to the size of and number of bathrooms in your house | |
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| Beer and Tax on 08:10 - Nov 29 with 3589 views | lowhouseblue |
isn't the answer to take the pub into public ownership and make the beer free?
surely we can all get onside with that? | |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| Beer and Tax on 08:12 - Nov 29 with 3581 views | GeoffSentence |
If this was real life the rich man would roll up in his Bentley but somehow persuade the rest of them he was poor leaving the rest of them to pick up the tab. |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 08:38 - Nov 29 with 3531 views | Guthrum |
However (to continue your analogy), the tenth bloke, who drank a lot of beer at reduced rates in his youth and despite having promised to cover most of the bill, is abroad on holiday drinking cocktails most weeks. Plus the brewery, who are making more profit than any of them, refuse to put any money into the pub. So the landlord ended up going bust. |  |
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| Beer and Tax on 09:36 - Nov 29 with 3464 views | StokieBlue |
That's only 1 pint each a week in most London boozers.
I hate FB. It allows rubbish like this which I otherwise wouldn't see to find it's way here.
SB [Post edited 29 Nov 2019 9:36]
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| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| Beer and Tax on 09:43 - Nov 29 with 3448 views | usm |
Excellent, love that.
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| Beer and Tax on 09:48 - Nov 29 with 3437 views | usm |
| Beer and Tax on 08:07 - Nov 29 by ElephantintheRoom |
Presumably no women went drinking because the government had stolen their pensions - and they had to carry on working?
Someone once had the bright idea that tax should be appropriate to the service provided. It was called the poll tax - and the idea that four people using local services should pay four times as much as one person led to riots and brought down the government.
Perhaps beer should be priced according to the size of and number of bathrooms in your house |
This carp about stealing their pensions - it was announced in the 90s wasnt it? Twenty odd years of warning - enough time to try to do something about it, like save!!!
Appreciate there are some hard luck stories in there, there always is, but the reality is that the pension age should be equalised and men have been disadvantaged compared to women for decades so where do we go to get our compensation Mr Corbyn? | |
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| Beer and Tax on 10:59 - Nov 29 with 3366 views | jontysnut |
| Beer and Tax on 06:57 - Nov 29 by BlueBadger |
I liked the riposte to this that came round shortly afterwards.
'A politician, banker, nurse and disabled person are given a packet of biscuits. The banker takes 5, the politician takes 3 an then leans over to the nurse and says 'that cripple there is trying to steal your biscuits" |
Mike Harding used to have a story where he was out rambling and a bloke told him to get off his land. How come it's your land asks Mike. It's been in our family for gnerations says the landowner. Well how did they get in in the first place MH says. We damn well fought for it says the landowner. Ok says Mike - get your jacket off and we'll fight for it now. |  | | |
| Beer and Tax on 11:06 - Nov 29 with 3351 views | Herbivore |
| Beer and Tax on 09:43 - Nov 29 by usm |
Excellent, love that.
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I refer you to this from my previous post: "That's a terrible analogy and the kind of thing only a stupid person thinks is clever." | |
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| Beer and Tax on 11:09 - Nov 29 with 3344 views | Herbivore |
| Beer and Tax on 09:48 - Nov 29 by usm |
This carp about stealing their pensions - it was announced in the 90s wasnt it? Twenty odd years of warning - enough time to try to do something about it, like save!!!
Appreciate there are some hard luck stories in there, there always is, but the reality is that the pension age should be equalised and men have been disadvantaged compared to women for decades so where do we go to get our compensation Mr Corbyn? |
Might be worth you actually reading up on it, probably somewhere other than Facebook. It seems you're quite ignorant of what actually went on. | |
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| Beer and Tax on 12:15 - Nov 29 with 3305 views | britbiker |
Fortunately the tenth man was a large landowner who then claimed thousands from the EU in subsidies.
The ninth was an MP who got his wife, who was on his payroll, to cliam the bill on expenses. He then received a salary increase multiple times more than N H S staff because he deserved it and they obviously didn't. :-) |  | | |
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