We need to wean ourselves off the tax treadmill. It suppresses incentive. 40% income tax, 20% on what you spend the remaining 60% on. Then 40% on whatever savings produce, even when this interest, dividends, or capital gain, comes from savings out of previously taxed income. All this is wrapped in hugely complex tax legislation. That's why there's tax evasion and why there is a lucrative industry around it. Then, ultimately, you can't even give it away, not without triggering more tax rules (e.g. IHT). What a mess.
I spent 2 years helping 3 NHS trusts unravel contracts. I gave up in the end, demoralised by 2 steps forward, 2 steps backwards. The huge beaurocracy results in no one being in charge, not the Commissioners, not the managers, not finance, not consultant doctors, but each think they are and only rarely pull in the same direction. Huge overhead waste. All operating to ration the money that is finally spent on the end product, mending patients. I was wasting my time and their money.
If the civil service and the rest of the public sector operate similarly, and I would expect they do, we are soaking up a huge proportion of the UK's talent, funded by tax payers, to ration what remains available for the final services provided. The true proportion of tax income which is actually productive, used on services, would probably shock us.
It would take political daring, vision and conviction to drastically improve this. That can't happen whilst policies are shaped by focus groups and popularity / opinion polls. It won't change in my lifetime. I wish it would. The consequence is we discourage entrepreneurs and investment, instead we chase the same money round in tax and spend circles, while we grow our balance of payments deficit, because we no longer produce what we buy. Happy New Year everyone 😂
And yet some people get on with them extremely well. My Tesla cost less than the cheapest Morgan (Plus 4), I rarely travel over 300 miles in a day (if I do the Tesla charging network is very reliable) and it costs about 5p a mile.
I don't need to drive like Lewis Hamilton on every journey - quite happy driving normally - I am not looking for a more 'involving' drive to Sainsbury's or the office.
So far I've done 35,000 trouble free, cheap, quick and silent miles... no service required either.
I wonder why the PHEV solution doesn't get much love. Eg. Audi A3 tfsi-e. 40m electric range, plus 400m petrol range, 0-60 under 8 seconds, eminentely practical small family car
Filled up with petrol as per normal for long journeys, so no range anxiety No emissions for local journeys - and recharge from solar panels 50% of the year - which for me might cover 75% of my driving Small battery so does not consume much of the earths lithium/graphite etc resources compared to a full EV 10-20% premium over pure petrol version - which does not seem a huge amount to me over say 8 years depreciation (and might be offset against the reduced petrol consumption over the years)
Has anyone got one or something similar ? What's not to love ? (particularly if you also have a Morgan in the garage)
I had the privilege of visiting this company. They are called Carice. The are located very close to were I live in NL. I am very impressed with what they have achieved. I can only hope that Morgan pays very close attention to the design philosophy as applied by the folk at Carice. If MMC goes electric this is the way to go for a nice sportscar. This little car must interest morganeers. I wrote an article about my factory tour, it will appear this month in our morgan club maggazine. Check this out in youtube
Not bad. When a Daihatsu Copen and a Porsche 356 produce offspring in the garage. I particularly like the interior and the frameless windshield at the top.
But for a new price of €54,000 you can buy a young Morgan 4/4 plus an used everyday car in good shape.
I do wonder if there is going to be a realisation at some point that having people in work paying tax, paying national insurance, buying things on which they pay tax, working for companies that pay tax and national insurance, business rates etc is quite a good thing.
Certainly in the bus sector there is now a realisation that UK tax payers money is being used to subsidise purchases from China whilst removing paid jobs in the UK and the military sector is now waking up to the realisation that sovereign capability has progressively been eroded, leaving the UK exposed to being back of the queue if things turn nasty and we need to buy kit for ourselves from countries that will prioritise purchases to defend themselves.
