Txing the Better Off

[GPEL]

Suppose that every day, the same ten men go out for a few beers and

the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our

taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay £1.

The sixth would pay £3.

The seventh would pay £7.

The eighth would pay £12.

The ninth would pay £18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the

arrangement, until one day, the owner made them an offer.

'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to

reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20.' Drinks for the ten now

cost just £80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so

the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could

they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair

share?' They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they

subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the

sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar

owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by

roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each

should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay £5 instead of £7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four

continued to drink for free. But once outside the bar, the men began

to compare their savings.

'I only got a pound out of the £20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed

to the tenth man, 'but he got £10'.

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a pound, too.

It's unfair that he got ten times more than I got'

'That's true' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get £10 back

when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get

anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat

down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill,

they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money

between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how our tax system works. The

people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax

reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may

not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas

where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

[Simon Dewsberry]

Excellent !

As my old dad hammered into me:

"Cut your coat to your cloth" .......

By the time i was ten i had added another line:

"And if you havent got enough ......the answer is very simple ......GET SOME MORE"

GPEL'S caveat to apply:

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Rodent

[Selkirk]

What they didn't know was that the Barman packaged off this ten customers giving them all an AAA rating based on the bar bill being paid each night and sold off their future custom to the bank....

cheers

[Simon Dewsberry]

All underwritten by the PM who will personally go beg banks, after putting his hand in our pockets, to make sure we are all safe ..........so nothing to worry about then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Rodent

[GPEL]

The drinks were over valued in the first place but sold at discount in order to appear to be good value.

[Simon Dewsberry]

Clearly a lot of the drinkers must have been "pixxed" not to realise what they were buying.