17 June 2007

Unpublished mediocracy definition #3



Observer leader:
Some of the richest businessmen in Britain pay less tax than the people who clean their offices.
Via Tim Worstall, who points out the mistake. Plain idiocy or motivated propaganda? I suspect the latter.

The ideology is already well established in most people's minds that:
  • it is not enough if someone earning more merely pays more tax;
  • it is in fact "unfair" if someone earning £40K pays less than double the tax of someone earning £20K;
  • indeed (many now seem to assume) it is "unfair" unless he or she is paying more than double the tax.


  • So why not just skip the underlying logic, and make the linguistic transition, so that "pay more tax" is shorthand for "pay a higher rate of tax"? Makes it so much easier for all concerned to remember the ideologically correct way to think about the issue ...