V.A.T.

I try not to get into too much politics on the blog, but a friend in England sent me an email recently telling me that the price of a pint of beer there is now likely to reach three pounds.  This would be about $4.50 in proper money!  The reason for this amount is the increase of something which in the UK and most of Europe is called Value Added Tax.

Now I expect to be told by some of you that my facts could be wrong, but I think V.A.T. was introduced around 1973.  It was a general tax of only 5% to begin with, and who could complain that sticking that small amount on every item you bought would be a problem?

Today it is now 20%!  And that's serious money.  So before you accept a "reasonable" tax on everything you buy, remember that once it's in place no government is going to drop it - only add to it.  Check out the history of income tax for that.  Also remember that we, the people, didn't run up all these deficits - it was the politicians who did that.