Shiney's tiers of government.

I like Shiney’s way of categorising things, posted in the comments here: Isn’t this about degree. Govt provides:

Back to the original point about NI…. MW is right – roll all the taxes into a flat tax and tell the proles how much all the stuff beyond #3 is actually costing them then see where we get to. And I’d wager that there’d be a lot less nutty stuff than there is now.

When you are debating what the government ‘should’ do, you can either apply some basic principles – but which principles? – or just ask on a case-by-case basis, are we, all of us as a society, better off if they do it (i.e. do we end up with more of the stuff we want, steady incomes, goods, services, clean air, low crime, all round ‘freedom’ etc), always asking whether the private sector is helped or hindered?

Everybody will have their own list. Personally, I would put fire brigade into #1 – it’s not really there for the benefit of the mug whose house catches fire, it’s there for the benefit of his immediate neighbours. It’s low-cost compulsory mass insurance which directly adds to land values, so is an ideal candidate for being funded out of LVT.