"Wake up and smell the coffee!"

[guzzi]

He do  I vote on tax policy? High taxation - vs - low taxation, maintaining the status quo - vs- cutting government?  What do you mean I can't? This is the oldest democracy in the world, surely?

[Fuller K Rapp]

There are TOO MANY people here. The push for MORE PEOPLE is just a BUSINESS PLOT to saturate the labour market and keep wages artificially low. Chris Thomas, you are really proving a disappointment.

[Kopek]

''Wake up and smell the coffee'', ''The Elephant in the room'', ''A major seachange'', starting every sentance with ''So''.

Lazy, lazy statement construction!

Speak in plain English Thomas, you're supposed to be a professional.

The use of cliches usually indicates an inability to structure a sentence to convey your intended meaning in an intelligible manner. A Govt Minister should be able to do this.

What does 'Wake up and........' actually mean? You've overslept and it's time to get up??? or, You have got up early, had your caffeine intake and are ready for your tasks of the day??? Ambiguous tripe, wake up and learn how to construct a sentence Thomas.

[Max Power]

To be fair, Chris Thomas has been consistent in his view that we need to increase the population to c. 100,000 with a corresponding increase in the tax base, for quite some time, certainly before the election.

[Fuller K Rapp]

It's time Chris Thomas and Alf Cannan woke up and smelled the coffee and sorted out the public salaries and pensions liability. THAT and not ridiculous attempts at bringing in more people to keep paying more taxes to fund it is what you need to do. Sort it out!!!!!

[Fuller K Rapp]

2 minutes ago, Max Power said:

To be fair, Chris Thomas has been consistent in his view that we need to increase the population to c. 100,000 with a corresponding increase in the tax base, for quite some time, certainly before the election.

Then he has been consistently wrong.

[Kopek]

No, he is right, I just wish I could hear a Govt minister talk about raising the wages of the lowly paid, who are here to stay, to bring then into a tax paying mode, rather than the constant back patting that we have another x people selling gambling addiction to Outer Mongolians.

[Fuller K Rapp]

No, he's definitely wrong.

[Kopek]

It's not about your/mine selfish desires for Manx Life to continue as before, a quiet life with mud roads and Horse and carts, it's about what is best for the Island as we enter the 21st century, we will get there eventually!, that requires a tax intake and the people to pay that tax to provide/maintain the services that we did not have in that (wonderful) past life.

[llap]

Shut up. It's about the island already being grossly overpopulated and the countryside being destroyed in the process of making it even more so.

[finlo]

We just need a lot less people suckling on the taxpayer's teat.

[Max Power]

We have set our standard of living, public services, health care, education, pensions, infrastructure etc, at the same level as the UK. These things have a cost per head and need a certain amount of money per head to pay for them. Fewer people will require higher taxes taken from higher wages. Higher wages leads to even higher prices, bigger demands on social care and benefits..  

We could probably get by with fewer people paying in during simpler times, our demands are just too high to be sustainable without a bigger tax base.

[Non-Believer]

16 minutes ago, finlo said:

We just need a lot less people suckling on the taxpayer's teat.

And, more specifically, a lot less of those people being on the immense salaries that far too many of them are receiving. Certainly without any performance assessment to justify.

[La Colombe]

Wake up and smell the milky coffee. 

[notwell]

51 minutes ago, Max Power said:

We have set our standard of living, public services, health care, education, pensions, infrastructure etc, at the same level as the UK. These things have a cost per head and need a certain amount of money per head to pay for them. Fewer people will require higher taxes taken from higher wages. Higher wages leads to even higher prices, bigger demands on social care and benefits..  

We could probably get by with fewer people paying in during simpler times, our demands are just too high to be sustainable without a bigger tax base.

Yes and no.

The actual main demands are from the PSPA mess and those in retirement and close to it.  That is causing the real issue.

This is what actually makes the implementation of tax rises difficult because it would cause uproar.