The Archbishop Of Canterbury is wrong: higher taxes don’t make people happier
There was a time when to become the Archbishop of Canterbury one had to be a decent, if not good, religious philosopher. This clearly isn’t the case today as Justin Welby is a retired oil company executive among other things. And on current evidence not a good logician at all.
For he’s claiming that higher taxes will make us all happier. No, that’s really not the case at all:
Raising taxes will make people happier, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said at the launch of an IPPR report.
Speaking as the think-tank launched its report about finance and inequality on Wednesday, Archbishop Justin Welby said that prosperity was driven by wellbeing as well as income.
He suggested that higher taxes could fund the improvement of the environment and culture, which could improve overall happiness.
That’s an absolutely vital point being missed here.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a fundamental rethink of how the economy works, including more public spending and higher taxes on technology giants and the wealthy.
In an interview with the BBC to mark the launch of a major report by the Commission on Economic Justice, of which he is a leading member, Archbishop Justin Welby said the present economy was “unjust”.
It is possible that a larger state will make us happier, that more government spending, more of the economy being disposed of by government, will make us happier. I think it’s unlikely, you might think it’s a great idea or not, but that’s not the same as saying that more tax will make us happier.
As it happens the taxation level is the highest, as a portion of the economy, that it has been for 49 years. If it were true that more taxes will make us happier you might think we’d have voted for them by now. But even that’s just an observation, not a failure of logic.
Taxes are, of course, the cost of gaining all those other lovely things. And we all prefer to have lower costs even while we’ll also argue for greater benefits. That’s why it’s always a shout for them over there to be taxed to pay for something nice for me over here, isn’t it? Further, we’ve even proof. Do all people pay all the taxes they should do because that makes them happier?
Err, no, there’s tax evasion and tax avoidance all over the place, isn’t there? Thus paying more tax doesn’t make us happier, does it? Given that at least some are willing to risk jail not to pay more tax we’d rather have to assume that more tax makes at least some people very unhappy indeed.
So, no, the Archbish fails basic logic, doesn’t he?
Posted: 8th, September 2018 | In: Money, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
