The UK tax system explained in beer

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Godsdog

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I think I need a sobre mind to understand this :whistle:


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 (a 100% 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.″
“Yes, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved £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."
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
 
Excellent..!! That explains how the tax system works. I often wondered. Thank you G's.D.
But, run this past me again - how do I persuade the rich b@$t@rd next door the pay for my beer?

Last week, I had a day trip to London (the City area). Popped into a bar at lunchtime. Waiting at the bar to be served, I clocked the price list : ��£7/pint...!!!!

I ordered a half....:-?
 
Excellent..!! That explains how the tax system works. I often wondered. Thank you G's.D.
But, run this past me again - how do I persuade the rich b@$t@rd next door the pay for my beer?

Last week, I had a day trip to London (the City area). Popped into a bar at lunchtime. Waiting at the bar to be served, I clocked the price list : ���£7/pint...!!!!

I ordered a half....:-?

I would of choked to death before i paid that price , hope the exploiting git goes out of business.
 
Excellent..!! That explains how the tax system works. I often wondered. Thank you G's.D.
But, run this past me again - how do I persuade the rich b@$t@rd next door the pay for my beer?

Last week, I had a day trip to London (the City area). Popped into a bar at lunchtime. Waiting at the bar to be served, I clocked the price list : ��£7/pint...!!!!

I ordered a half....:-?
Around this time last year down in Bristol I had a half of a pint of one that cost £9 a pint.needless to say it wasn't my round
 
Excellent..!! That explains how the tax system works. I often wondered. Thank you G's.D.
But, run this past me again - how do I persuade the rich b@$t@rd next door the pay for my beer?

Last week, I had a day trip to London (the City area). Popped into a bar at lunchtime. Waiting at the bar to be served, I clocked the price list : ���£7/pint...!!!!

I ordered a half....:-?

London's obviously expensive compared to much of the UK, and £7 a pint is expensive even for the City (I drink in the City of London every week) but other cities are worse...

heres-how-much-it-costs-to-grab-a-beer-around-the-world.jpg
 
It's not surprising that beer is so dear in that London - the weekly wage is about �£5000 whilst up here it's about 20p before stoppages.

I wish it was! I was actually earning more in Manchester 10 years ago than I am in London now.
 
When I went in the Brew Dog bar in Brighton some beers were about £9 a pint ans some even more The worst was about a fiver for a 1/3rd of a pint. Full of hipsters and bright lights. I never went back.
 
Cripes! What went wrong?

The recession, followed by some major life-changes. I'm actually far happier now, so I'm definitely not complaining. Life doesn't have to be about working yourself to death to earn as much as possible, as home-brewers seem to know more than most in my experience.
 

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