Twat looks at wrong measure

Our Elyan idiot looks at tax revenue collected and tells us that – compared to other countries, which is what he’s looking at – the reason British public services are shit is because we’ll not pay for them.

The problem here being that the twat’s looking at the wrong number. Tax revenues pay for two things. Public services and also redistribution. Think on it, in the Y = C + I + G thing the G is government final consumption. That’s what government actually spends on stuff, not on what government hands out in benefits and redistribution.

So, the concept should be familiar.

So, tax revenue plus or minus the deficit will be what government spends plus what government hands out. Tax revenue therefore isn’t a good measure of how much government spends upon services then.

The services can also be classed as collective or individual. Collective is stuff that really is that – defence, environment etc. As an example, GB and Denmark spend about the same %ge of GDP on this. Then there’s individual – spending on things individuals get. Education, health care etc. That’s going to be hugely influenced by how health care is paid for and treated statistically.

OK. But those two really don’t explain the vast differences in taxation as % ge of GDP. It’s how much government collects to hand out again which does. And Denmark does much, much more of that than the UK. Well, OK, their choice. But the thing is that’s not public services. That’s redistribution.

The UK public services are not – amazingly enough – particularly bereft of money compared to other places. What GB does less of is redistribution.