Comments on: Labour’s tuition fees proposal is the worst of all worlds

By: JohnRich

JohnRich — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 16:27:00 +0000

We should simply go back to the old system of grants and having the tuition fees paid.

By: Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 12:43:00 +0000

We need to move away from the ridiculous idea that only the individual benefits from a university education. An educated workforce is a benefit to all of society and should be paid for through general taxation. The idea that graduates should have to pay an additional tax to everyone else is totally unfair. If they go on to a well paid job (individual benefit) from their degree they will be a higher rate tax payer anyway so will be contributing more than most. If they however choose to do something more socially useful but less well paid, such as nursing for instance they will be earning very little but contributing a great deal to society. The idea of expecting these people to pay an addtional tax is insane. We need to be encouraging intellegent, driven and well motivated people into socially useful professions. Any form of graduate tax (and the current loan system) actively drives people into more selfish lines of work where they can earn enough money to pay their debts or hypothetically pay a graduate tax.

By: Leon Wolfeson

Leon Wolfeson — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:38:00 +0000

A BET has a fair amount to recommend it. There’s still an argument, of course, for some form of financial stake from students, but we’re talking about £1k/year *maximum*

(A graduate tax is a route not followed by any other developed country for *very* good reasons, and would double down on discouraging the poor from thinking about education and the brain drain we have seen – at a minimum rate of 12% from the income tax threshold to come anywhere close to current repayments…for entire working lives…).

By: Frums

Frums — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 20:44:00 +0000

I’m always rather bemused by the idea of asking “the most profitable companies to pay fair tax” . In the UK, this seems to mean asking multinationals like, say, Apple and Amazon, to pay more UK tax because they operate in the UK. But at the same time President Obama is arguing that such companies should be paying more tax in the US on their international income because that’s where they’re based.
Which is it to be?