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Originally Posted by jason phillips
Sorry Smidgey I didn't notice your post earlier. My understanding of a 'Safety Net' Welfare state is Loans giving to charities to help individuals who can't help themselves. The money will come from Low Flat rate Tax but would be gradually phased out as Charities take over The role of The state & individuals become more responsible & less dependent. I think it would take a few decades before everyone in the UK gets used to living without any Welfare state at all.
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Thank you for your reply. I would tend to agree with the idea of phasing out. My 'utopia' would be to have everything funded by VAT. At current levels the amount of wealth the government gets from VAT is about 96 billion pounds, which can account for the armed forces, justice, law and order and about half of the infrastructure/transport budget. I would shift the focus from public transport to construction of transport infrastructure. Currently about 80% of money is spent on rail, a service which is only used by about 10% of the population (if I remember my figures correctly, obviously these are not exact), this must change.
I would also expect that we would no longer be spending so much on justice and corrections since we would not be imprisoning people for consensual acts.
As to your discussion with Eurosceptic Atlanticist. If you do not mind me butting in, I would like to say I agree with the stance of Milton Friedman. He also made a very good argument concerning medical drug legalisation. We are often told of how the government (at least in America) protected them from thalidomide, however, we never ask ourselves how many thousands - if not millions, if lives have been lost worldwide because governments have been extremely risk averse. A drug which is never released but could save thousands is not a headline story.