The Generation Game of tax thee but not tax me

An example of one of the great truths of taxation. Many to most are in favour of other people being taxed in order to pay or me, rather fewer go for taxing me to pay for thee. Nice to see you again old truth.

The young aren’t so interested in being dinged to pay for the social care of the old, the old are intensely interested in someone, anyone other than them, being taxed to pay for said care:

Younger adults are far less keen than older people on raising taxes to fund public services and want volunteers to help ease the growing crisis in social care, a survey shows.

It reveals a stark generational divide over whether to increase taxation, with under-45s much less supportive than those aged over 45.

The results suggest that public support for tax rises to fund the NHS, and the health service receiving a growing share of public spending, may be eroded in the coming years.

While overall 41% of the public believe taxes should go up to fund public services such as the NHS, just 33% of 18 to 24-year-olds and even fewer – 30% – of those aged between 25 and 44 agreed.

In contrast, backing is strongest among those aged 45-54 (42%), 55-64 (46%) and over 65 (54%).

It’s all rather Who, Whom? isn’t it? Who gets taxed for the benefit of whom?

Our own insistence is that getting someone else to pay for you through the political process is rather cheap. Cheap morally but also cheap in the sense that you’re not having to pay the cost of what you’re getting. This doesn’t accord with any true measure of value, which is that you really do think the thing is worth what you’ve got to give up to get it. On the obvious grounds that you’re insisting that someone else give up so you get. That’s why it’s only market systems which do deliver what’s worthwhile - precisely because people will only pay from their own resources for those things that they themselves think it worthwhile to get.