These words were spoken, through a just alight dog end stuck to his bottom lip, by a labourer in a potato merchant to a friend of mine who was his foreman and was trying to hurry him up in loading the lorries. The message is don't work too hard or fast or the job will go.
But what really kills jobs?
We all know that jobs are a cost of production, not a benefit hence the costlier you make it to employ somebody the less jobs there will be.
Which brings me on to this (which I have just re-discovered):
It seems to me that the other takeaway from Fred's analysis is that by taxing labour not land you kill production which in turn kills jobs. Or rather the killing of jobs kills production.
Of course it gets worse. The value of money arises from production. Fiat money is what it says it is. Its value does not arise from production. So without production (and yes that would include house building) money must eventually have no value.
So on top of reducing production we now have money printing to save production...
It's not going to end well is it.
Unless we change course...
Thursday, 25 June 2020
'Never kill a job, mate. Never kill a job'
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9 comments:
Yes, taxing tobacco and alcohol is often presented as a health measure to restrict their consumption (what would happen if the country really took the hint?), so taxing work is to treat it like something you're trying to stamp out.
It's a good principle though. Do the bare minimum without getting sacked. Employers screw as much out of you as they can. Overall, I think we can reach a happy medium.
https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/vat-cuts-are-a-bad-idea-for-germany-britain-and-italy
All sorts of things wrong with this. So what if prices don't drop as much as VAT? Businesses and jobs are saved, and wages can go up if the turnover isn't hammered as much by VAT.
I've always wondered why taxes on labour are not taken into account for net VAT. Say you pay a restaurant bill. 20% gets whacked off, then whatever the restaurant can afford to pay the staff gets whacked with PAYE. How about recognising that there's input tax on labour so this should be taken off the output VAT??
Interestingly, tips are somehow exempt from VAT. Why? Not any different to the labour cost embedded in the VATable price.
Off topic, but you may be interested in this...
https://twistedsifter.com/videos/drivers-in-yellowstone-get-caught-in-middle-of-bison-stampede/
M, "So what if prices don't drop as much as VAT?"
No sane person thinks they will. What happens is that prices stay the same and quantity supplied goes up - more business activity, more jobs, more goods and services for us to enjoy.
There are two kinds of wankers in this world. Those who say VAT is a good tax because it is paid by consumers. And then those who say cutting it is a bad idea because suppliers pay the tax.
BFOD, cow attacks always much appreciated. Keep 'em coming.
M, in fact, that's a great article, backs up what we've been saying all along, thanks. Even though it draws the 100% wrong conclusion.
"Interestingly, tips are somehow exempt from VAT. Why? Not any different to the labour cost embedded in the VATable price."
I'm sure that certain little things are VAT exempt simply to propagate the myth that VAT is a tax on luxuries.
"It's a good principle though. Do the bare minimum without getting sacked. Employers screw as much out of you as they can."
The other point is that the foreman has watched the worker working for five minutes and reckons the worker could work faster. Yes he could, if he was only working for five minutes, but the worker has to work at a rate that he can keep up all day.
Cheers me up every year when the TUC complains about how many hours unpaid overtime people work. And the CBI complains about how many sickies people take.
People don't get their commute costs reimbursed. But they nick a bit of stationery and make private calls from the office.
It all evens out.
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