Why are (UK) tax cuts suddenly in vogue? Labour and the Tories seem to be playing the game of "my dad is bigger than your dad", as if they were in a school playground, not adults in Parliament.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/11/tax-brown-cameron

It's like a faint echo of the US presidential election, when instead of focusing on need, you focus on personal greed (hey! it rhymes... Need not greed, now there's a decent slogan).

The people most affected by the rising prices of food, petrol, and energy are those with the lowest incomes. Why? Because proportionally they spend more of their money on essential items than more wealthy people. And 2% of nothing is nothing. And if you are already below the border line for income tax, it doesn't help you at all. So, all income tax cuts do is make wealthy people happier (and more wealthy). Those with the most need, those struggling to get by, get no help at all.

Business tax cuts don't do much for people either. They potentially can I suppose, subsidizing people's jobs in the short term, if all of the savings are used to benefit the business, but if it's just used to keep paying out the dividend and executive bonuses, or filtered off to the Channel Islands as in the case of Northern Rock (call me a cynic, but somehow I think that would be priority one for many businesses) it's help will be severely diluted.

I do understand the argument: make people feel more wealthy and they will spend more, and with luck spend us out of recession, I just don't believe it. They have been doing it in Japan for at least 10 years, stimulus package after stimulus package, and they are still in trouble.