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The Tory Party Conference raises the issue of reduced
taxation. This sounds very appealing to many British workers since the tax
deducted from their wages is huge. To promise to reduce this taxation burden is
a very populist demand that strikes a chord in the hearts and minds of many.
But is it as good as it sounds?
If, say, income tax is to be reduced is this going to
necessarily, in general, benefit the workers. Is it going to lead to a
corresponding increase in take home pay?
A reduction in income tax means, on the face of it an
increase in real wages. However if this happens wages increases negotiated or
won through industrial action are going to be correspondingly less. Consequently
any reductions in taxation will in the long run benefit the capitalist class
leading to correspondingly increased profits rather than the working class.
The entire idea of reduced taxation leading in the long run
to increased wages is an ideological myth promoted both by the bourgeoisie and
the bourgeois trade union leadership. Income tax is, if anything, is a deduction
from surplus value and not a deduction from wages.
Consequently the Tory Party's promise of tax reductions is a
populist way of promising to reduce the state's deduction of surplus value from
the profit of the capitalist class.Tax reductions may also mean a reduction in
state that are of benefit to both the working class and the lumpen working
class.
Warm regards
George Pennefather Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site
at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/ |