[user104658]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

We are charged:

Stamp Duty
Tobacco Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Income Tax
Council Tax
Unemployment Tax
Fishing Licence Tax
Petrol/Diesel Tax
Inheritance Tax (Tax on top of Tax_
Alcohol Tax
GST
Property Tax
Purchase property Tax
Tax on title searches
Tax on building inspections
Tax on various food items
Tax's on dining out
Tax's on utilities- phone, water, waste disposal
Service charge Tax
Vehicle license/Registration Tax
Vehicle sales Tax
Workers compensation Tax
and now Carbon Tax!

I'm sure there's more.

Not one of these taxes existed 60 years ago and our nation was one of the most prosperous in the world....We had absolutely no national debt.

What on earth happened?

Late-stage capitalism. It's not that hard to figure out really. Also to be fair... I think it's pretty inaccurate to frame individual QoL conditions for the average brit as better in the 1960's than they are now.

That said, I'm not saying things only get better. We seem to have peaked (again, for the average middle class brit) in the decade from 1995-2005. Steady decline in may ways since then. Steady but inevitable. Neoliberalism was only ever going to be a short-term gravy boat, it doesn't actually work long term.

Individual day to day middle class QoL will likely have another peak when they finally stop arsing around and admit that increased automation and corporatism means UBI is essential. We'll have another comfort-peak then. Not much freedom though.

No moral absolutes there though; there's nothing inherently morally superior in choosing freedom over comfort.