Originally Posted by
ragingpup
Its a double pronged problem. Firstly that previous elections where a party has proposed that we all pay a penny more to fund services has tended not to be elected. Plus, as you say, even this penny or two wouldn't really cut it in solving the problem.
So what to do? We can ask the public if they're willing to fund it and take their answer on electing the party that doesn't offer to do this as a reason to do nothing and keep services underfunded.
Our we could ask if people democratically favour a progressive tax system where people that can afford it pay more than the present amount and enough to make a significant difference in creating the kind of towns we'd really like to live in. If we accept this as a democratic decision to actually do something different, instead of always getting more of the same, then the question is just how many do we collectively feel aye in scope? 80k 100k?etc. And how much?
I completely accept that this means that it is the majority are asking the minority to pay for improvement. Its not ideal and I wish that the majority could be pursuaded to elect a party where they also chose to pay a little more themselves. Most of us would be happy to do so but then wimp out somehow in the polling booth as you've said. But not sure we should abandon increased progressive taxation just because of this, simply as I don't see any other way of raising money, and that's for the tories spending plans as well as labour's.