Ned is aware of discord in our Mother Country, and is already hearing the explanations. Ned tends towards too much football and beer, but others, naturally, assert that the areas subject to riots are disadvantaged and underserved, which, if true, hardly serves as a reason to smash property. And there are those who say that, even if these regions are underserved, the country cannot afford more tax and so the impoverished will have to bear their fair share of the austerity measures. Now, Ned understands that the maximum tax rate on income is 50%, seemingly high, but a far cry from the 98% on some income that prevailed until Thatcher.
But Ned would like to offer this observation: he doubts that many people with high incomes pay that much tax, as there are all sorts of giveaways to the Plutocrat business class in the UK. For example, Ned recalls one of his chums from his days in the UK during the 70s showing up at college one day driving a new Porsche 944 or something like that. And this on a university grant of about 100 quid a month. Ned naturally enquired how his mate could afford such luxury and was told that the car was not his, but belonged to his daddy's company. Turns out, his dad owned a large company in the north of England and bought several cars for "company use" which apparently the tax man did not enquire too deeply about. In fact, Ned found out that about 70% of cars sold in the UK during the late 70s were "company cars." So Ned's pal drove this vehicle, and also had a gas card so his petrol was free as well! If such a scene is still in operation, and petrol is about $8 a gallon, imagine the benefits accruing to a Plutocrat and his or her family.
Therefore, Ned advises his many friends not to have an inordinate amount of sympathy for the Sneering Plutocracy, as he suspects they have many creative ways of avoiding tax such that, comme de habitude, the poor and middle clssses are bearing most of the burden.
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