Author Archives: Thomas Colignatus

Don’t tax sweat – An Independent View from Thomas Colignatus

With our intelligence and enterpreneurship we create micro-chips and send crafts into space, but the creation of jobs for the disadvantaged seems out of reach. The rich countries in the world still have a huge pool of unemployment and poverty at the bottom of society. A close analysis gives the insight that we actually create unemployment and poverty ourselves.

The following table gives the legal minimum wage in the US (dollars), in the UK (pounds) and in Holland (euros) as key examples for the rich world. The table is best understood from the principle of “don’t tax sweat”.

That is, workers at the minimum should be exempt from levies.

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | 7 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • cim
    I would have thought one of the biggest barriers to buildings getting built is the supply of materials and the availability of competent staff to turn those mat...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    This subject needs far more attention and more noise from Liberal Democrats, particularly in London. Rob’s direction is right, and the report is useful. But w...
  • Peter Davies
    London is a special case. There wasn't enough undeveloped land without planning permission sold to get an accurate figure. What matters is what developers think...
  • Tim
    @peter - Land prices have not been rising, at least in London, for ages. The idea that developers string out negotiations is hard to sustain in the context of t...
  • Jim Webber
    I spent 17 years in London. Nothing speaks louder about the problems affecting this country than the closure of key bridges in our country's capital. The closur...