[hamdani yusuf]

Of course, a car production line optimized for gas-guzzlers is not really suited to producing compact medical devices acting as gas injectors - but amazing things can happen in wartime...

And just when they had got the hang of high pressure fuel injection, they get an order for low pressure carburettors!

Meanwhile, back to government economics. Now the UK at least has introduced tax rebates and government-financed basic incomes, perhaps it's time to consider an idea I've been playing with for a few years.

1. Get rid of all avoidable taxes such as income tax and corporation tax. Sensible and well-paid people don't pay any of these anyway - you are employed at a miserable salary by an offshore company that contracts to supply your services at huge expense, then invests the tax-free surplus in your retirement fund, your children's education, and the yacht or island that you can "borrow" from time to time.

2. Then increase an unavoidable tax - VAT - to cover the loss, and charge it on all imports including services.

3. Now give every adult something around £5000 per year to offset the VAT on personal survival essentials like fuel.

The beauty is that offshore and multinational companies cannot reduce their tax liability by claiming negligible profit on their franchised UK operations: every transaction within the UK incurs a 40% government levy, like it or lump it, and a government that gives every adult £100 per week simply for being British, is going to be very popular.

Do you know any country that already implement your proposals?

[alancalverd (OP)]

Not explicitly, but Jersey, for instance, has a maximum income tax of 20% for residents and no corporation tax, and Alderney has no VAT, whilst VAT in Bhutan is 50%. Rates of all taxes vary enormously even across Europe.

Income tax was introduced in the UK to pay for the Napoleonic Wars, which I think are now over, so we are in a position to restructure anything and everything once we have established a proper Customs border with the rest of the world. There's no great hurry. The VAT rate has been changed a few times since it replaced Purchase Tax, and Selective Employment Tax came and went in my lifetime. I think a gradual increase in VAT and corresponding decrease in Income Tax, plus the introduction of a national "entitlement card" and universal basic benefit, would  be accepted if the net result for those below the 75th percentile of incomes was nil or favorable.

The concept of an entitlement card is worth considering. Suppose you had a government-issued photocard (you probably already have a driving licence and a passport, so nothing new so far) with a chip and PIN that could be read by any cash machine. At the lowest level of use, this would give you cash access to whatever government benefits you were entitled to, or you could use it as a debit card for online and store purchases with no overdraft. So at a stroke we have made it a lot simpler to issue benefits.

But we can go further. Since the card identifies you, it could also give authorised users (emergency services) immediate access to any critical allergies or illnesses that you care to upload through your GP's portal, and if you wish, you could enter your PIN to give a non-emergency practitioner access to your entire health record. Any second party accessing your record would have to use his own code, so there would be a record of who looked at it and when. More to the "entitlement" point, since the full card would only be issued to UK citizens, it could eliminate fraudulent use of the NHS, or grant time-limited emergency access to visitors whilst obtaining any national or private insurance details that they have entered.

[evan_au]

The premiere of a number of big-name movies has been delayed by periods of up to 6 months: the next James Bond film with Daniel Craig, a Top Gun sequel with Tom Cruise, and many others..

The reason is that a number of people in the movie industry look down on electronic delivery, and refuse to accept anything delivered over streaming media as "art".
- It caused a stir recently when one of the cinema awards recognized a movie that was not released first in cinemas
- So, while movie theaters are shut down, so is release of many big name movies.

Today's 4K TV (and tomorrow's 8K TV) provide as much resolution as you can perceive on a movie screen
- So maybe it is time to recognize streaming as a valid delivery mechanism
- Which will require a different way of scoring popularity other than "box office earnings at cinemas" or "bums on seats in bona-fide cinemas".
- home sound systems and echoey wall coverings are rarely up to theater standards.

PS: One benefit of this delay in release date is that TV, movie and streaming content production is now on hold (or at least severely curtailed), which might produce a drought of content in 6 months time - just in time for release of these potential blockbusters...