Or “Swings and Roundabouts"
In the harbour of Monaco, millionaire Sir Bernard Docker came ashore from his magnificent yacht “Shemara” to talk to Sunday Express representative Bernard Harris (2.9.51) on the subject of rich men's taxes. The millionaire is an irate and indignant man, sobbing into his champagne; the sour milk of human unkindness is curdling his digestive juices. The reason in a nutshell is the Labour Party’s latest manifesto which declares “Further taxation must be levied on the small minority who draw large unearned incomes from private fortunes.” Sir Bernard says, “No one in Britain has got any real income now,” which boils down to the fact that under the present system of taxation no man is left with more than £6,000 per annum, To achieve this amount he must have a gross income of £100,000. To a millionaire this is mere chickenfeed, and you cannot possibly run a large yacht (crew of 32) and afford a town and country house, so what are you to do? The answer is, painful though it may be, you must draw on your capital. Thus the latest threat of further taxation hits where it hurts. “It is ludicrous” (wails Sir Bernard) “to think that you will get happiness and prosperity by forcing everybody down to a dead level of uniformity. Every man in Britain should have the opportunity to make all the money in the world. For in the creation of wealth for themselves men create work and good living standards for others.” His wrath is then directed against “this socialist talk of the rich living on the labour of others.” (For socialists read Labour). “It is complete ballyhoo. What have they ever created? Everything they have touched, including their nationalisation projects, has been a complete flop.” We would hesitate to class nationalisation as “creative ” but would like to put on record that all the vast wealth which Sir Bernard owns (including what was left by his Dad) has been and still is, created by the workers. There are only three ways of getting a living in this sorry world, by working, begging or stealing. We are not suggesting that Sir Bernard goes out and robs a bank when he wants some spending money. The fact is that capital invested in industry derives huge profits in the form of dividends from the unpaid labour of the workers. Capitalists the world over acquired and are acquiring their enormous wealth from the surplus labour put in by the workers over and above their weekly wage. That is where the robbery takes place.
The Sunday Express tells us that the “philosophy of this forthright millionaire is summed up as follows by a big American company:—
“America became great by letting Americans become great, giving every man, woman and child a chance to go as far as his energy, productivity and ambition let him. Destroy opportunity for profit and you destroy ambition; destroy ambition and you destroy America.”
Sir Bernard maintains that the above portentous pronouncement “goes” for Britain as well as America. He should not lose sight of the fact though that Docker Senior gave him a pretty good start, building up investments in a powerful industrial group of companies in the Midlands. However, to quote his own words, “It is ludicrous to force everybody down to a dead level of uniformity.” Sir Bernard may sigh about the Labour Government “soaking” the rich, but he should bear in mind that among other things there is an outsized rearmament bill to be paid, not to mention Korea and Malaya, and as all wars are waged on behalf of the class he represents he must expect to pay the piper when the system he supports calls the tune.
We cannot close, however, without giving him one crumb of comfort.
Perchance when the rearmament programme gets cracking Sir Bernard will gain on the “roundabouts” of the Birmingham Small Arms Company a little of what he loses on the “swings” of taxation. Here's hoping, anyway. It's putrid being down to your last yacht.
F. M. Robins
No comments:
Post a Comment