Yes, I thought about this quite a bit after reading Ritchie raging about high (effective) marginal rates for the low paid. He wasn’t preprared to folllow it through and think about the consequences, preferring to scream about evil Tories, but that’s Murphy.
I agree your analysis (and Ritchie’s I suppose) but I’m not sure I’m bothered about high marginal rates at the lower end. My reasoning is I’m not sure there really is any social mobility after the age of about 30 years. What social movement there is has largely occurred in a person’s late teens of twenties (discuss). So there really is no ‘poverty trap’ as such.
So benefits provide support, that’s there function and we shouldn’t be too concerned with getting an individual off benefits.
Yes, I thought about this quite a bit after reading Ritchie raging about high (effective) marginal rates for the low paid. He wasn’t preprared to folllow it through and think about the consequences, preferring to scream about evil Tories, but that’s Murphy.
I agree your analysis (and Ritchie’s I suppose) but I’m not sure I’m bothered about high marginal rates at the lower end. My reasoning is I’m not sure there really is any social mobility after the age of about 30 years. What social movement there is has largely occurred in a person’s late teens of twenties (discuss). So there really is no ‘poverty trap’ as such.
So benefits provide support, that’s there function and we shouldn’t be too concerned with getting an individual off benefits.