That's one for you, fifty for me

George Harrison sjöng i Taxman (där jag önskar att textraden "If you're overweight, I'll tax your fat." skulle varit med även i studioversionen):

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

95 procent marginalskatt var dock inte på något sätt en maximal skattesats - från David Henderson:

One was bringing down the top marginal tax rates over time from 98 percent on "unearned income" (interest, dividends, etc.) and 83 percent on "earned income" (wages and salaries) to 40 percent.

Och omräknat så motsvarar 98 procent alltså en till dig och 49 till skattmasen. Annan dåtida uppenbar ekonomisk idioti var KPI-inflation på över 20 procent och exempelvis att engelsmännen inte fick ta med mer än 500 pund ur landet. Angående Thatchers eftermäle så bör det alltså - oavsett politisk åskådning och decennier av betingad avsky - vara uppenbart att mycket alldeles objektivt behövde rättas till.

Sedan, angående arbetslösheten - tweeten av LO-ekonomen Torbjörn Hållö, retweetad av bland andra civilekonomen Ali Esbati:

Myt = Thatcher räddade "Europas sjuke man". Fakta = Arbetslösheten var lägst under 1979, året hon tillträdde. twitter.com/torbjornhallo/…
— torbjörn hållö (@torbjornhallo) January 10, 2012

Från Wry Republic:

The majority of mine closures had already occurred under her two Labour predecessors, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

And the 1984 (UK) Monopolies and Mergers Commission found that 75% of British coal mines were losing money, costing the taxpayer an annual £1.3 billion in government subsidies.

Och här är självfallet ytterligare ett gott tillfälle att påpeka självklarheter som att arbete är en kostnad och att staten netto inte skapar jobb:

(Direktlänk)

Sedan känns vurmandet för horribla arbeten där slutprodukten sedan dessutom avskys just av samma grupp (kolproduktion good, kolkonsumtion bad?) mer än en smula märklig.

Och angående skolmjölken, från Patently Rubbish:

Anyway, the milk would arrive at some point during the morning, and would wait until there was a suitable break in the lessons.  Then we would collect a blue straw and a bottle and take it back to our seat, and push the straw through the tin foil lid to drink the milk.  By then, it was always warm, and not very appetising.  I used to finish it though, because one of my Mum's frequent comments was about how good for you milk was.  Lots of my classmates didn't - I'd say about half the milk was left undrunk, not to mention the bottles that were still in the crate untouched.  Inevitably, there would be a long delay before the bottles were collected, and the other kids would spill some, so the classroom would fill with the smell of warm and off milk.  To this day, I still detest that smell.

Och sammanfattningen:

So there, in a nutshell, you have an early appreciation on my part of the effect of government initiatives.  Stuff that most people don't want or need is acquired at who knows what cost, distributed inefficiently to people who don't really need it, distracting them from doing what they are there to do and making them waste their time doing something else instead.


(Direktlänk)