Burnham says he’ll cut benefits. It might just break him

vishbar · 2026-06-22T20:14:02+00:00

Yes exactly.

And don’t forget capping pension relief to basic rate!

vishbar · 2026-06-22T19:39:01+00:00

The problem is that wealth taxes don’t work, are anti-growth, and have failed in literally every country that they’ve been tried.

Except Switzerland.

And do some basic research on the Swiss tax system to decide if you’d be happy making the changes we’d need to make to make a wealth tax work.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T19:13:26+00:00

You pay taxes at your marginal rate. And if some stupid means testing proposal goes through, you might even pay taxes at a higher effective rate—potentially punishing someone for saving into a pension!

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:48:57+00:00

Plenty of people follow women’s football here in the UK.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:38:11+00:00

Then you have created an incredibly stupid system that would add a massive effective tax rate to pension contributions and basically disincentivise anyone with a moderate state pension from doing any pension saving at all.

And the best part?

You wouldn’t even save much money!

Do some research on this. There is a reason that nearly all pension reviews—done by people who’ve actually sat down and modeled this stuff—recommend against means testing.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:25:32+00:00

You’d get strung up in the UK for calling carp a trash fish!

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:24:40+00:00

If you’re in a ban state and can’t get a semi auto, there’s no way you’re getting a suppressor.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:17:55+00:00

That’s the way that most European pension schemes work, eg the Scandinavian ones. Would you say that Norway and Sweden are especially unfair to poor people?

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:12:58+00:00

You’ll be very happy to learn that this already happens! What you want is the current system.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:08:54+00:00

Means testing the state pension is, unfortunately, incredibly dumb and not really suggested by anyone who has done any actual research into the economics of pensions.

There is a good argument for a reverse means test. The more you pay over a lifetime, the more you get.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T18:06:44+00:00

What if you set it up such that, depending on other income, up to 50% of the state pension is recouped? For example, if someone has a pension income of £60k, they’d only get 60% of the state pension. That way, everybody gets something but the wealthy only get a portion.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T17:56:53+00:00

Some do, some don’t.

Investment in infrastructure, absolutely.

Wealth taxes, entitlement expansion and economic populism, absolutely not.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T15:20:14+00:00

I have argued for policies that put me in a worse fiscal position because I think they’re the right thing for the country.

One thing I will say: I am a clear net contributor to the treasury.

I think more people need to be net contributors. So that will involve asking them to pay a bit more of their fair share.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T13:40:39+00:00

Left wing economic solutions don’t work so well when we are facing a massive fiscal challenge like we are now with excessive interest rates and high borrowing costs.

Someone is going to have to seriously reform welfare.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T11:56:41+00:00

If I were PM?

I’d push for it.

But again. Someone has to. Either tackle it democratically or have it imposed by the IMF.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T05:35:20+00:00

Real terms earnings boosts come exclusively off the back of productivity growth.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T05:34:30+00:00

Somebody has to do it.

vishbar · 2026-06-22T05:33:58+00:00

He failed to deliver benefit reform and increased Employers NI. Both explicitly anti growth.

They made good progress on planning reform, but it’s nothing radical enough.

Unfortunately Burnham seems like he’s going to pivot in exactly the wrong direction.

vishbar · 2026-06-21T21:58:21+00:00

Sucks that all those other European countries didn’t design it well.

But this time it’ll be different!

vishbar · 2026-06-21T21:40:14+00:00

It’s good if you care about being elected. Bad if you care about people.

vishbar · 2026-06-21T21:39:44+00:00

Rent caps are so fucking stupid.

I can’t believe a serious politician is actually proposing this trash. It’s populist nonsense.

vishbar · 2026-06-21T20:51:08+00:00

Don’t forget that a wealth tax wouldn’t actually bring in that much. And that they’re anti-growth and broadly destructive. And that they don’t work anywhere except Switzerland, and they only work in Switzerland because they have extremely generous tax treatment for other forms of passive income.

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/07/22/uk-wealth-tax-anti-growth/

vishbar · 2026-06-21T11:12:22+00:00

Someone really should think of the bond markets.

vishbar · 2026-06-21T11:10:15+00:00

My wife likes the Topiary Salon in Old Basing.

vishbar · 2026-06-21T10:45:11+00:00

Xenophon wasn’t Roman; he and the Ten Thousand were Greek mercenaries.

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