A Place to Stand

  Some time ago I suggested a number of ways in which government artificially pushed up the cost of living. The main ones were housing (75% parasitic) and electricity costs (93%). Here is an interesting comparison between costs of living in Britain and the US.

Gasolene prices: about $1.00/quart in Mariposa; about $2/quart in Sunderland. Groceries to feed two for a week: $138/Mariposa; $136 in Sunderland. Prices for comparable houses: $237,000 in Mariposa; $480,000 in Sunderland. Real estate tax: $2600/year in Mariposa; $1800/year (ave) in Sunderland Sales tax/VAT: 9.25% in Mariposa; 20% in Sunderland. State income tax: 10% for a middle class income in Mariposa; 0% in Sunderland Marginal income tax rate for a middle class income: 25% in Mariposa; 40% in Sunderland National insurance/social security: 15.3% in Mariposa; about 20% in Sunderland Medical costs: about 17% of GDP in Mariposa; included in the income tax/national insurance in Sunderland.
– Harry Erwin, PhD

  Higher personal taxes in the UK but they seem to not far above US Taxes + Health Care. He doesn't mention electricity but does petrol - overwhelmingly tax. The big unmatched difference is housing which is not due to tax so it must be regulation. If housing prices are 50% government parasitism in the US that makes 75|% here though I would not be surprised if it was higher there.

  When I did the article I also suggested childcare was another area of high government parasitism, but at the time had no figures. Now, following discussion on Mark Wadsworth I have. (p3) which shows childcare costs of as a % of family income:


Belgium 4%, Poland 5%; Portugal 4%; Greece 5%; Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary & Luxembourg 6% Finland 7%; Germany, Norway, Czech, Slovak, 8%; Korea 9%, Australia 10%; France 11%; Netherlands and EU average 12%, moving up through USA 19% finally to Britain 33%

This gives the first 10 an average of 5.5% or 17% of costs in Britain. I decline to believe the Swedes hate their children that much and so must assume that that leaves 83% of childcare costs in the UK being the regulatory costs government enforces.

In Britain you can get child support of up to £175 a week or £300 for more than 2 if you are poor. Indeed you can get this even if you are only in part time employment so that you can still get full time childcare.

This is government paying a selected part of the population compensation for an added cost government have created in the first palce, at considerable expense at both ends. Thus being a further example of how the state destroys at least 50% of our possible economy.

It also destroys affordable family formation, of which Steve Sailer has written, for the middle classes while encouraging it among the poor and single parents. As Steve has shown the correlation across the US states between voting for individual responsibility parties and welfarist parties is, not that surprisingly, very closely correlated with the cost of family formation. It is understandable why Labour pushes this government parasitism, less understandable why the Conservatives do too.

In my opinion even more importantly than voting patterns is that discouraging children is normally not in a country's long term interests. Discouraging it among families who are self sufficient and competent but not among those who are neither is storing up a multitude of disasters.

According to the BBC

Many parents in Britain are paying in excess of £8,000 a year for a full-time nursery place, a survey suggests.

The Daycare Trust found the yearly cost of a typical nursery place for a child under two was £8,684 in England, £8,216 in Scotland and £7,592 in Wales.

Which sounds like about £40 billion or 3% of GNP. The BBC being the corrupt fascists they are they spin the story as need for more government and subsidy, particularly for fakecharites like the Daycare Trust.

However the obvious and real answer is that getting government out of the way would allow costs to go down from £8,216 by 83% to £1400 and that would be good for the economy, for the individauls involved, for national growth and for a free and self confident society.

  At the time I estimated that government parasitism left us with about 24% of the money we could have without both taxation and parasitic regulation. Looking at child care being a higher proportion of HNP than I assumed and 83% parasitic rather than 75% it now comes out at 23% being left to us.
People should be allowed to afford that