boozyoldman wrote: Lifted shamelessly from THE SPECTATOR - discussions about Oxfam's current propaganda:


I wouldn't give a cent to Oxfam - especially with the risible amount now sploshed all over the place in foreign aid.

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And by the way, a salutary tale:

It's about 10 drinkers who decide to settle their £100 weekly bar bill in roughly the same way we pay our taxes. The first four men (the poorest) pay nothing; the fifth pays £1; the sixth £3; the seventh £7; the eighth £12; the ninth £18; and the 10th man, the richest, pays £59.

When the barman gives them a £20 discount for being good customers, they decide to pay the new £80 bill in the same progressive way.

So the fifth man, like the first four, now pays nothing, a 100 per cent saving; the sixth man pays £2 instead of £3 (a 33 per cent saving); and on up to the 10th man, who pays £49 instead of £59 (a 17 per cent saving). No one loses.

But when they compare their savings, the sixth man complains that he is only getting £1 while the first four point out that they receive nothing. The richest man, by contrast, gets £10.

“The system exploits the poor,” they object. “The wealthy get all the breaks!” So the nine men surround the 10th and beat him up.

The next week he doesn’t show up at the bar and when they come to pay, they don’t have enough money between them to cover even half the bill.

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It is hard to stomach the colossal pay-outs to some executives, but governments need to be careful about how they tackle the issue.