People have no idea how their taxes are spent (UK) - Polidicks

[b]HOLD UP!!![/b] Before you read this, [del]consider taking this shit poll[/del] on how you think UK taxes are spent (its fucking gone, [url=http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1436226&p=46458206&viewfull=1#post46458206]see results[/url]), to find out how smart FP is compared to the UK public. Unfortunately your responses don't have to add up to 100% so it's a bit shit. Don't cheat you bastard [url]https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/11/09/public-attitudes-tax-distribution/[/url] [quote]HM Revenue and Customs began sending 24 million people their first annual tax summary this week, showing how their income tax and national insurance contributions are spent on public services. The letters include pie charts depicting the distribution of their money over 15 public spending categories, and tables explaining what this equates to in terms of their salary. ... New YouGov research finds that people greatly overestimate this figure, and believe tax is distributed far more evenly than it really is.[/quote]

[QUOTE=smurfy;46450845][t]http://imgkk.com/i/1pls.png[/t] [t]http://imgkk.com/i/ipip.png[/t] [URL]https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/11/09/public-attitudes-tax-distribution/[/URL] [editline]10th November 2014[/editline] Not only is the EU contribution far lower than people think, it's far lower than people would want it to be :v:[/QUOTE] To be fair, that doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I think part of the issue is that people get told some huge number in the papers or on TV, and therefore think it must contribute a huge part of the budget even though the budget is actually really, really big by comparison.

The amount spent on welfare surprises me mostly because people bang on about it so much I assumed it would have been like 1% or something.

The two UK threads in the last week: People in the UK feel opposite about paying taxes than Americans do (in favor of it and dont mind paying them) then now People in the UK have no idea how their taxes are spent

Looking at this, it makes you wonder. If people were allowed to choose where their tax money went, like opting to have more of their taxes go towards healthcare than towards the military industrial complex, would that be a new form of democratic freedom or one of the worst ideas that could end up crippling a nation? You'd still have to pay your general tax allotment, but you'd end up deciding how your money gets spent, thus if the people are interested in boosting one thing and dropping another, they would be able to make that decision democratically. Either way it'll probably never happen, since if I recall there are many different individual taxes and the government adjusts each one individually.

[QUOTE=Code3Response;46450894]The two UK threads in the last week: People in the UK feel opposite about paying taxes than Americans do (in favor of it and dont mind paying them) then now People in the UK have no idea how their taxes are spent[/QUOTE] Made even funnier when it could also be said "People in UK want more spent on the things they complain about, less on the things they pride themselves on." Or, "Not as much of UK taxes is given to the EU as Euroskeptics would have you believe, or as much as you would like."

[QUOTE=ironman17;46450958]Looking at this, it makes you wonder. If people were allowed to choose where their tax money went, like opting to have more of their taxes go towards healthcare than towards the military industrial complex, would that be a new form of democratic freedom or one of the worst ideas that could end up crippling a nation? You'd still have to pay your general tax allotment, but you'd end up deciding how your money gets spent, thus if the people are interested in boosting one thing and dropping another, they would be able to make that decision democratically. Either way it'll probably never happen, since if I recall there are many different individual taxes and the government adjusts each one individually.[/QUOTE] if the public could decide where their money went, every nhs hospital would have solid gold walls

[QUOTE=MuTAnT;46450886]The amount spent on welfare surprises me mostly because people bang on about it so much I assumed it would have been like 1% or something.[/QUOTE] With how much some people bang on about welfare, you'd think it was 50% or more. Whats even funnier is people think the majority of that 25% goes to (in hteir mind) "Lazy or fraudulent people" when infact, a large majority of the welfare budget goes to Pensions.

Depending on how welfare spending is broken down it can paint a very different picture to the 25% total welfare spending, which most people will think is mainly spent on people unemployed. [IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78748000/gif/_78748618_tax_breakdown1.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78761000/gif/_78761217_tax_breakdown2v3.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78761000/gif/_78761215_tax_breakdown5v2.gif[/IMG] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29898083[/url]

I agree, this doesn't really surprise me at all, my only remote issue with it is I feel education should be more prioritised, but who doesn't always think that?

[QUOTE=BarnacleDrive;46453115]I agree, this doesn't really surprise me at all, my only remote issue with it is I feel education should be more prioritised, but who doesn't always think that?[/QUOTE] The government. After military the first pot of money they get their grubby hands on is education and health care.

Yeah that's pretty close to what I thought it was gonna be, not surprised and not fussed.

That the UK pays 1% of their taxes to the EU and people want to pay 3% is kind of hilarious.

[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;46453132]The government. After military the first pot of money they get their grubby hands on is education and health care.[/QUOTE] Can't forget small businesses!

I love how according to some of these, the contribution to EU is less than contribution to overseas charity. It makes it sound like people would literally rather support Uganda than Poland other countries that will actually "return" the British investment by being an actually relevant import-export market. [editline]10th November 2014[/editline] Mind me, I am not saying Uganda and other places are undeserving of support, it's just funny that supporting them is totally fine but MONEH FOR THESE FILTHY POST COMMUNIST SLAVS? NO WAY

This is more of a study in peoples' ability to group numbers. In the perceived section, most things look pretty much proportional, probably because when taking a survey like that they think "oh don't want to forget about EU budget, better throw some in there too" rather than looking at each category and really thinking about the UK's contribution to each sector. the average of how much people want money to be spent on something probably is indicative of only one or two main issues that people have, (such as education or welfare). They then will probably evenly divide up the remainder of the budget among the things they don't particularly care about.

Ya fucked it up, FP [img]http://imgkk.com/i/51pm.png[/img] [img]http://imgkk.com/i/hgw7.png[/img]