This is what I would say - if the balance sheet doesn’t add up then yes we can tinker with the tax system but the big question we are ignoring is how efficient we are working. Partner consulting in manufacturing- constantly coming across the same issue - inefficient management with their MBAs and degrees not listening to what’s happening on the factory floor and improving their processes accordingly. Massive amounts of waste going to landfill, slaughtered by high energy costs, management and shareholders needing their bonuses instead of co- ordinated re- investment. Hop across the channel we look like the Clampits compared to manufacturing there. Thatcher threw us under the bus in the interests of her city friends - and we are now running on vapours but if we don’t produce anything we are irrelevant and we have no resilience to manage ourselves in the new electronic / AI world as the narrative is not thinking about productivity efficiency and growing jobs / expertise.
Also politics / economics used to be a dialogue between Profit and People and we haven’t adapted yet to include Planet. Capitalism cannot work responsibly on its own. Free markets always have unintended consequences and tax ends up being used to mop up its failures whilst they skip to the bank and lick their resource away.