sovereign wealth funds

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The other alternatives to higher levels of taxation would be a larger economy, the further shrinking of public services, or taxation of wealth rather than income. But yes, the shift in taxation to indirect taxation generally hits those on lower incomes much harder as their discretionary spend is much more limited.

The acceptance of the ideological term "burden" for taxation is something I'd question - countries with lower levels of taxation are often not nice places to live and the cost of business, often via bribery/protection is a hidden tax in many of these places. My preference is a country where the rule of law obtains.

The introduction of VAT (at 7.5% if I remember) signalled the move toward indirect taxation. You could, of course, make the case for fairer local government funding, but you'd then also need to consider social care, and like Brexit these represent a political third-rail.

The result is where we are now.