Watch out, the taxman cometh!

It’s that time of year when the taxman wakes up. What I find disconcerting is the way people save and on some savings, say Bank interest for instance or savings put away in a Bond of some sort then are taxed at 20%. Although he taxman allows a paltry £1,000 free. So, a person puts hard-earned money away, perhaps over a life-time and then some of it get taxed! Of course there are savings systems that are free of tax and one would be well advised to take those. But it is not always convenient or possible. One can talk, even swear, about taxation but a valid question would be, what is done with all that tax? Does a country, it’s chosen leadership, spend it wisely? It ought to be obvious that taxation is a necessity, simply because as a society we need certain things. That is to say all of the people that live, residing in a nation. We need a certain amount of social care, we need to protect ourselves with an army and we need a number of people who lead the system and projects its course. One of the questions I struggle with is - does this include these leading people to involve themselves with how to educate the rest of the people? Another question would be - and involve them in health provision? Yes, awkward since I believe that when you provide a service free it quickly degenerates into a shambles. Viz the NHS and also Education in the UK. If the wrong choices are made, for instance the insistence on social care with the multitude of benefits possible to acquire and free medical care without checks on the increasing management structure? Those who need help desperately find themselves in waiting queues for hours and hours. Those that could be economically productive but chose to do not, only have to obtain a simple piece of paper from an overworked GP to get as many benefits as they can. It is incredible, really. Too many officials rather have an easy life and as a result the UK in particular is now burdened with a sharply increasing national debt thanks to having to borrow astronomical sums to keep the show running. Obviously there will be an end somewhere and at that time, all will suffer the same fate. Riots because of hunger and deprivation, gangs will roam the streets and services will have ceased to function. There have been many books written on this subject, real situation anthologies as well as fictional. Fiction like Mary Shelley’s ‘The Last Man’ (from 1826!) or earlier ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’. Or read ‘Station Eleven’ by Emily Mandel. There are many more. One might think it is a bit over the top, humanity surely has enough brains to overcome things like this. Do we really? Have a word with the criminals who run this world, I am sure they would not want to alter the situation as we find it today. The likes of Putin and to some extent the present POTUS as well, are doing very well with the system as it is, thank you very much! How did Elon Musk become the richest man in the world? By being someone who follows the law to the letter? Sure he did, ask his two hundred children. This world is run by the greedy and the power-hungry and it these who will cause its demise.