Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story

Assalaam alaykum,

Please click on this link to watch Martin Durkin's latest documentary entitled Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story. Scary points include the fact that Britain's current debt is £4.8 trillion and the public sector in the UK is twice as large as that of China (yes, communist China) and it is larger than the country's private sector. Remember, governments and politicians don't have any money. ALL of it comes from the private sector. The film not only shows why Britain is a dreary, depressing and oppressive place to live, but one can also understand fully why England lost the 2018 FIFA World Cup bid. The country is bankrupt. You can also read this article from the Daily Telegraph.

What is of interest is that the points made in this film more or less dovetail with the Islamic understanding of taxation and economic growth. More taxation leads to economic stagnation. The Laffer curve demonstrates that for a while increasing taxation leads to increased government revenue, but at a certain point working people lose the motivation to work because taxation is so high. The result is that governments lose revenue. Obviously, 100% taxation would result in absolutlely no government income. Why work if the government takes everything? Arthur Laffer, the American ecnonomist credited with this idea, says that the idea is not original and can be found in the 1377 book Al-Muqadimmah, by Imam Ibn Khaldun. The Imam said:

In the early stages of the state, taxes are light in their incidence, but fetch in a large revenue...As time passes and kings succeed each other, they lose their tribal habits in favor of more civilized ones. Their needs and exigencies grow...owing to the luxury in which they have been brought up. Hence they impose fresh taxes on their subjects...and sharply raise the rate of old taxes to increase their yield...But the effects on business of this rise in taxation make themselves felt. For business men are soon discouraged by the comparison of their profits with the burden of their taxes...Consequently production falls off, and with it the yield of taxation.

From my experience of living in the UK, and my regular visits to this day, I have noticed that Muslims are heavily involved in the public sector; either working for it or claiming money from it. I'm sorry to say, but this has contributed, and is still contributing, to Britain's decline. Whether this is pre-mediated revenge for the colonizing of India is anyone's guess, but living off of the state has never been considered noble in our Deen.

And Allah knows best!

Assalaam alaykum,

Mahdi