A question for those of right wing beliefs

[k-onmmunist]

Every year, benefit fraud costs the British economy approximately £1bn

In that same year, tax evasion by the rich who choose not to pay British taxes cost £30bn.

The right wing media, the Conservative Party and many of their supporters want you to believe that benefit cheats are the least fair in the land and that they are the biggest leech on our society. Their rich friends, meanwhile, should pay low taxes which they then choose to evade anyway and cost us thirtyfold more.

So who's right? The facts or the Conservative Party?

[k-onmmunist]

Both are wrong, but where did you get the fraud number.  It seems dramatically low.  Both numbers do actually.

http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/tax-evasion-costs-treasury-15-times-more-than-benefit-fraud/a378274

Obviously I don't agree morally with either benefit cheating or tax evading. But it's something to think about, especially given the British press obsession with welfare cheats.

[k-onmmunist]

Both are wrong, but where did you get the fraud number.  It seems dramatically low.  Both numbers do actually.

http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/tax-evasion-costs-treasury-15-times-more-than-benefit-fraud/a378274

Obviously I don't agree morally with either benefit cheating or tax evading. But it's something to think about, especially given the British press obsession with welfare cheats.

Agreed.  I'm too lazy to look up the numbers here but I'd guess both are staggering, and probably opposite - benefit cheating outweighing tax cheating.......

Of course the oppresively high tax rate is probably largely to blame in the U.K., but it's not an excuse for fraud.

Not really. The reason so much tax evasion goes on is because of economic deregulation that the Tories decided to set out on in the 1980s. We had a 95% top rate for much of our post-war history and there wasn't as much tax evasion then (it was a much fairer rate than 50% too)

[k-onmmunist]

If you find the right's answers to be unsatisfactory just have a mod sticky this thread, Winston, and you can answer yourself properly in a few months.

Well done, no-one has ever made a joke about me having changed my mind over something before

[k-onmmunist]

If you find the right's answers to be unsatisfactory just have a mod sticky this thread, Winston, and you can answer yourself properly in a few months.

Well done, no-one has ever made a joke about me having changed my mind over something before

Quite. And it wasn't really funny the first time.

You'll soon come to see that others have made this joke.