Fairer tax for the wealthy / very wealthy would be a small help, but for me the biggest benefit to doing it would be social cohesion by reducing income/wealth inequality a bit, and perhaps slightly reducing the strong impression most of us have that people with more cash than us are paying lower, or no, taxes because they can afford lawyers and accountants and do things offshore &c. The actual income it would raise would go a lot less far than people often assume, I think; it's certainly not a magic wand that can make everything alright again.
The two biggest problems are demographics and 40 of propaganda firmly convincing everyone that Immigration Is A Problem (rather than, say, "the only thing that keeps the NHS lights on", or "payers of 30% more tax than the average UK-born Brit". Hmmm, actually that number would be interesting to work out, it's bound to be higher because the cohort of people working who weren't born in the UK will obviously skew strongly towards younger, healthier and more economically active.
Any economists in the house? Is there an immigration multiplier numbers for the two groups? ... ... I'm drifting... /Prof Nebulous
He can't spend money he hasn't got.
Fairer tax for the wealthy / very wealthy would be a small help, but for me the biggest benefit to doing it would be social cohesion by reducing income/wealth inequality a bit, and perhaps slightly reducing the strong impression most of us have that people with more cash than us are paying lower, or no, taxes because they can afford lawyers and accountants and do things offshore &c. The actual income it would raise would go a lot less far than people often assume, I think; it's certainly not a magic wand that can make everything alright again.
The two biggest problems are demographics and 40 of propaganda firmly convincing everyone that Immigration Is A Problem (rather than, say, "the only thing that keeps the NHS lights on", or "payers of 30% more tax than the average UK-born Brit". Hmmm, actually that number would be interesting to work out, it's bound to be higher because the cohort of people working who weren't born in the UK will obviously skew strongly towards younger, healthier and more economically active.
Any economists in the house? Is there an immigration multiplier numbers for the two groups? ... ... I'm drifting... /Prof Nebulous