Belongs to Alexander Chancellor.
One argument for taxing the rich heavily is not so much to narrow the wealth gap as to liberate them from their enslavement.
We\’re taxing you for your own good you know!
Sheesh. God forbid that we should have the Puritans back, running your life for you for your own moral improvement.
Is this the same Alexander Chancellor who used to edit that magazine for old Etonians, Greek jailbirds and the odd drunk, The Spectator?
Seriously, this is a truly wacko argument. My wealth enslaves me. Wow, I must tell my bank manager.
Really, what the fuck?
And what about the City workers who have chosen to stay unmarried, can they be excused this for-your-own-good taxation?
“God forbid that we should have the Puritans back, running your life for you for your own moral improvement.”
You mean we don’t? Thank God. I must have been hallucinating. Horrible it was too: I dreamed that Labour was elected in 1997…
His thinking (am being polite) must go something like this:
Wealth can’t buy happiness.
Some wealthy people are unhappy.
Wealth makes people unhappy.
and the corollary to this brilliant piece of deductive reasoning would be:
Removing wealth will make people happier.
Taxing people removes wealth.
The more we tax people the happier they’ll be.
So that’s all right then, isn’t it? :))