POLITICIANS promise stuff; voters count on the promises for their income. This bargain is at the heart of the democratic process but, of course, the problem is that such promises can only be funded at the expense of other members of the public.
Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has an excellent column on this in today's Times (behind a paywall). In the British election, he points out that the parties are
promising to raise a lot of additional money in tax, while apparently not making anyone else worse off. The parties are even promising not to raise the main rates of any of the three taxes - income tax, VAT and national insurance - that account for two-thirds of all revenue
Instead, the parties are relying on what he rightly calls "made-up" numbers on tax avoidance, unspecified cuts to welfare, efficiency savings and the rest. The cuts always affect someone else, not the "hard-working families" that are invoked in every soundbite. As he concludes
This can't go on. If we want to reduce the deficit, or maintain public services, we will have to pay. Not someone else.
Quite right. A good deal of the problem lies in the way that promises are framed. Take pensions. Whether it is Social Security in America or national insurance in Britain, these have been sold as insurance...Continue reading
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