doug2500 wrote:I would also class myself as falling into the 'happy to contribute more for a better country' group but there's a but..........I just don't believe more money is really the answer, or that it will be spent well.
I would go further and near guarantee that if you give this government (and in fact any government) more money then they will find a way to waste it. And at least the SNP were honest enough here to say that some of this new money will go to increase public sector salaries. Since I think public sector salaries should be reduced, that's a red flag right there.
The reality is that all governments love to spend money, even supposedly low-tax, right-wing governments. The only rational response to that is to deprive them of funds, AKA "starve the beast".
doug2500 wrote:I could also live with paying more tax but think it's a mistake to lower it for some at the same time.
Yes, I think it's an important principle of any tax system that "everyone pays something". Or in the event of a tax increase, everyone pays a little more.
What the SNP is trying to do here is divide and conquer - create a schism between two classes of voters, with the assumption that one class is good (public sector workers, less successful people, welfare recipients) and one class is bad (wealth creators, innovators, business owners). Socialism is all about riling up the less successful against the more successful, AKA class warfare and the politics of envy.
It is beyond frustrating that at a time when the US is introducing a bold new tax-cutting plan, the UK is seemingly reverting to old-school "tax, borrow and spend" mediocrity.