New fair tax and benefits system. Looking for ideas. Discussion.

The tax and benefits system is so complicated that we have people who should be doing something of value dedicating their lives to manipulating it.

Could we actually get a decent system down to two pages of A4? A system that motivates and rewards productive work, facilitates a less consumer / debt based economy and renders our highly intelligent time wasters in tax avoidance and gambling redundant so they can become doctors, work in a recycling plant or, if they are so clever, innovate and lead others into private enterprise.

I've got it down to one side of A4. Thoughts greatly received.

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Flat 30% tax on all incomes (including unclaimed trust growth, capital gains on stocks and shares etc.
Exclusions are Capital gains on your primary residence and share holding in Ltd businesses that are predominately productive (productive definition, most revenue comes from turning physical goods into physical goods of higher physical value.

0.5% wealth tax on all world assets for UK citizens. assets (including trust stakes) over  200,000 x the minimum hourly wage. (about £1m).

1% wealth tax on all UK based assets. Assets (including trust stakes) over  200,000 x the minimum wage (about £1m). (instead of 0.5% for UK citizens)

No individual may transferee internationally more than 10,000 (about £50k)  x the minimum hourly wage worth of assets in any given year.

No death duty,

All citizens will have the right to work in the national service should they be unable to find work within the private sector. This will be 30 hours per week and 20 days of holiday. until the age of 65 and 15 hours per week and 60 days of holiday until the age of 75.

National service work will include house building, recycling, food production, defence (home soil only), utilities. These services will be managed by private contracting managers.

All citizens will be provided with health care.

All Citizens will be provided with free childcare and education up until the age of 18.

All national service citizens will be provided with appropriate accommodation up to home suitable for two children.

All citizens over 75 will be provided with suitable accommodation should they so need it.

National service citizens will have a food card, electricity and gas that reflects modest requirements they will also receive 2x minimum day wage / month to use how they see fit.

One parent per national service household is allowed not to work their 30 hours if there is an infant  below school age. Once parent with one more children will be expected to work 1 hour after school starts and one hour before school finishes.

Disabled people will have their work suitability assessed and be provided with work that meets their specific needs.

People who must unfortunately leave the private sector after not less than two years of private self sufficiency and own a home  may receive monitory value of their national service work for up to one year should they so wish.

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How to fix the UK economy for dummies

My recent blog titled 'What's wrong with the UK economy for dummies' as you can imagine just points out flaws.

I hate people who try to sound clever by pointing out flaws but offer no improvements for which they can be scrutinised.

So here is how I (with some tidying of loose ends) would fix the economy.

The fix?

Fundamentally get house prices to the right relative level (about half what they are) get debt  to the right level and mortgage interest rates to around 5% so that pensioners can spend their interest and banks make on the 1% in the middle. Then stop it happening again.

We will need to introduce capital controls like Malaysia 1978 (link)

We were ok until 1986 when we deregulated domestic markets (link. See 4). And stocks went up in value many times their worth. Not that financial 'experts' will see a problem with that.

Protect local labour rates from direct competition internationally using sensible import duties.

Encourage a sustainable population that is better distributed over the UK by having nationalised essential services and use them to action full community developments where business might not, or attract businesses with attractive 'temporary' perks for private businesses who do invest early.

We will need an adjustment period where everything is allowed to inflate locally by about 8% / year for 5 years . . everything including salaries but NOT PROPERTY / LAND. 

Limit mortgage lending to 3x highest house hold salary. Keep them property prices down. But need to stop wealthy family trusts buying to let. Simple. #Right2Buy Private. If you rent a property for 2 years + you have the right to buy it for the midway point between what it was worth when you moved in and what it is worth now but not below what the landlord paid. No fees for landlord.

Stop with this stamp duty rubbish. Moving house is tough enough. We want people to live in suitable accommodation leave the 4 bed detached house near a school when the kids leave.

Printing money inflates locally and devalues internationally so that is easy. Just print it and spend on the things that need fixing. 'Need' means 'essential' so on national project. Get these essentials back under national ownership and just manage people better. Examples of things we can nationalise are refuse & recycling #right2work. And pay off the National debt. Why are we in debt. My grandparents are not in debt and the UK is at least twice their age.

The big problem here is foreign investment and the price of global commodities  Well hey, guess what. It's going to happen anyway. We need simple wind tidal and solar energy, 100% recycling and a static population some time in the next century.

More part buy homes for young couples while the adjustment takes effect, place nice low subsidized interest rate on that, adding a #Right2BuyPrivate law free up access to the home ownership and stop this wealth bubble where poor hand to rich for nothing more than being rich first. Greedier landlords no longer offering a service will get bought out quicker.

More radical, give to money to every citizen,to to pay off debt first, those who are locked in debt because they overpaid for their property will at least be in part reimbursed. 

Young families will pay off their debt or boost their deposit, and the banks will have more liquidity, but less debt interest income ...shame, to all those fake Christians in parliament, charging interest is a sin anyway. Banks should be providing an essential service, nothing more. Increase capital reserves to something like 20%. This will counter the inflation from the true currency we just printed and shared out.

If people have any cash left then they can choose to spend it on the new not disposable priced goods people will be employed to make or repair here. Since mortgage payments will be so much less they will be able to afford locally manufactured goods anyway. 

Sure tech progress will slow down. Admit it you waste too much time tweeting anyway. Nothing better than a run in the park and back home for a good book and a cup of tea.

The planet can not afford this level of consumption for another 200 years. The faster we hit the wall the more it will hurt, if it were us hitting the wall I'd be ok since we let is happen, but others will bare the burden of our consumption debt. I personally have no option but to act.

There are few measures that would need to take place first which the Financiers and Landlords would never allow. 

• 1. Limit capital flows to stop politicians and their mates cashing in on the adjustment destabilizing into a bust, ready to manufacture another boom. This may also require that we leave the EU unless capital flow restrictions are placed across EU. We could just enter trade agreements like China and US if need be (they are doing ok).
• 2. Stop over taxing hard working wealth creators who tend to spend or invest in innovation anyway. Top rate of tax 30%. But on everything. Capital gains, dividends, and anything else they dream up.
• 2. Tax wealth, all of it above lets say £700k including trust stakes at 1% / year. This will be very messy but simply put, we can no longer allow a few to own everything and rent it back. The super rich are not that happy and the poor are missing out on a life worth having. Yes wealth hoarders will leave UK but will have to sell there local excesses at price someone here is willing to pay.
• 3.  Lets just have landlords who provide a service that tenants want. We are too civilized now to have land owning families taxing peasant families half their earnings because of a 100 year old trust fund. #Right2BuyPrivate should be extended to the private sector. No fees for landlord. Terms to be considered but suggest after 2 years they may force purchase at midway between value when moving in and when deciding to buy. No silly get outs.
• Planning permissions to cost the land value change and that money in full going to the local authority. There is no such thing as a magic money tree, someone less well off pays that in the end, better and fairer to invest planning permission profit in the community that is permitting it.
• Import duties that mitigate local hour labour rates. E.G china may be 50%.
• Import duties that mitigate against environmental efforts for supplier. Not relevant now but would be if we make the sustainable conversion and wish to encourage others to match us.
• Nationalised house building, recycling, energy, farming and banking to run in parallel with private who must match national salaries and staff numbers in their government contract bids
• A #right2work and a #need2work. No one should not have something useful to do for 20 hours / week. We are going to make work pay. No excuses for those who don't want to. The new national energy, housing and food companies will take them on and train them up if private sector will not. If they do not turn up they will have privileges docked. eg, loss of console, TV, curfew. We do it to kids to teach them discipline, why not the big kids who have fallen into bad habits and bad attitudes curtsey of the hopelessness capitalism places on the bottom 50%.
• Oh. None of this can happen without democracy. That means all those Investors and chairmen with other interests having money thrown at them should find being an MP impedes their personal business opportunities. MPs should be paid well to represent you and be willing to BARE ALL now and in the future for the privilege.

Please consider www.SMART-voter.org.