I hope you've all got this straight

It would be a shame to get confused about something so simple.

When the board are paid massive salaries, it's a rapacious abuse which is misappropriating shareholders' funds. When they raid the same coffers to support second-rate performances and exhibitions they're national benefactors (src).

When a company offers cut-price rental properties to charities to reduce their council tax liability, it's bad (src). When they reduce their corporation tax liability by donating to charitable trusts which buy artworks 'for the nation', they're good.

I'm glad we've got that sorted. For it would be terrible, wouldn't it, if the rule was simply, 'You can only reduce your tax liability in ways which don't get leftie media types into a most frightful bate'.

In defence of high private sector salaries

A quick thought amid all the kerfuffle about high private sector salaries. Working in the public sector, I like it when private sector people are paid insanely high salaries. The marginal rate of taxation is over fifty percent, which means that more of the money ends up going towards the Treasury and onwards to pay my salary (and everyone else's) than actually ends up in the employee's pocket. Somehow the public sector unions have it in their heads that this is bad for their members: whereas it is plainly the reverse, because the highly paid pay the taxes which fund our salaries. In fact, it's in the interest of public sector workers to see private sector inequality rise, since this would increase the overall level of income taxation paid for any given overall quantum of remuneration.

The flip-side of this, of course, is that one way to shrink the State may be to encourage, in as State-free a way as possible, less inequality in market incomes. It's odd to think that quite possibly, these two issues have shaken out on the 'wrong' sides of the debate in quite the way they have.

A video for Sunday

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Church in New York, gives a whistle-stop tour of the Old Testament, giving an overview of what Elmer Martens called its 'plot and purpose' (link).

A good idea comes round again

At Liberal Vision, Sara Scarlett puts forward a suggestion of creating the British Broadcasting Co-operative (src). Long-standing readers in this parish may well remember a similar suggestion two and a half years ago (src); it is good to see the idea starting to get some traction. Sara has put together an e-petition at the appropriate Government website: if you think a co-operative BBC is better than the current model, you too can sign at the link (link).