Everybody contributed and everyone got a share. The laziest found that they could do little and get the same as everyone else. Productivity went down and the colony starved. William Bradford changed the government and allowed the producers to keep their produce and sell it. Productivity when up and provisions were bountiful.

The point: Free markets work. Google ‘pilgrims communism‘. I know anyone can write anything, but it is history. Rewriting history is a completely other story for another time.

“It’s not any governments business to take what I make and give it away as Tom believes.”

Actually I’d say that is exactly what the business of government is. That is, taking money away from people with money and giving it to people with less or no money.

I don’t see why just because someone is poor and/or lazy and/or stupid they should have a bad life just so a bunch of better-off smarter, hard-working folks can buy themselves additional useless tat they don’t really need.

Also all that other good stuff like rule of law, public health, education, ensuring the trains run on time, and giving us all a target to vent our spleens at when they inevitably screw up or get caught with their hands in the till. Well, it costs.

As to your point about government hypocrisy I suspect you’re right. But so what? As long as they’re reasonably accountable and representative and keep sharking amongst themselves there’s no bother. It’s when they all get together and agree on something you’ve got to kick up a stink.

Also I reckon Ms Gore is a Gladstonian liberal: which is an OK political philosophy as long as you happen to be a rich 19th century industrialist, but pretty awful if you’re anyone else (c.f. anything written by Charles Dickens).

Really I’m a pro-Free Trade and pro-civil liberties kind of gal. I means I want low tax, small state and abortion rights. I’ve no idea who’d I vote for if I were American!

What’s a fair share though? I agree it seems unfair that you have to be rich to take advantage of tax havens, but ultimately these companies still create jobs, still create wealth – the UK gets the better of it no matter what.

If the money that’s managed to dodge being taxed is reinvested and used to create more jobs then that’s even better.

It all depends on whether you believe the Private sector or the Public sector are the most capable of generating wealth with a given quantity of money.

The only think about tax dodging I don’t like is the fact that I can’t get away with it myself.

But for all the guff the statement looks OK: the commitment to avoiding protectionism is good.

I think “We start from the belief that prosperity is indivisible” is an additional rejection of the “beggar thy neighour” policies that caused so much damage during the Great Depression.

And as for tax havens: rich people avoiding Paying Their Fair Share for the infrastructure, defence, rule o’ law, educated citizenry, and public health practices that enable them to make their money in the first place is damnably unfair. So good for the G20 on that regard.

But yes, that sense of “when’s it okay to start feeling a bit paranoid?” is becoming quite commonplace these days.