How will this money usually be raised? 
The need to finance a society |
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We have established that we need rules and bodies that make those rules and decisions. We now establish that some laws/rules/decisions require money to finance them.
From the humblest club or society to the mightiest country laws rules or decisions will be made which require expenditure. Laws often require money to enforce them or expenditure on things such as roads or welfare. Even the decision by a small club or society to provide services or facilities for their members requires money to fund them.
From whom will the money come from to finance a small club?
The membership
How will this money usually be raised?
As subscriptions, payments or fund raising.
Where does money come from that is used by governments?
How are Taxes raised; list all those you can think of?
Income tax
Value Added Tax
Inheritance Tax
Petrol Tax
Fuel Tax
Capital gains tax.
Tax on Drink and cigarettes
Council Tax
Do you pay tax?
They almost certainly have paid VAT; try and find out what on!
[Suggestion: Discuss the effects on the club society or country of people avoiding payment of subscriptions or taxes.]
We now investigate the way this money raised is spent.
How does your BB Company spend the money you pay?
Your BB company spends money in ways that are obvious and visible (e.g. band equipment, awards badges etc.) and on things that are not so visible (e.g.. postage)
[Suggestion: Does your company publish accounts in a church annual report? If so get them to have a look; they will probably be surprised how much it all costs.]
We now consider what our country does with our taxes. Perhaps you could make a list on a flip chart as they think of items. Add to the list any they have not thought of.
How does the UK government spend our taxes?
Schools
Roads
Railways (subsidy)
Civil service (what do they do?)
Health service
Police
Pay MPs and Government ministers.
Provide support for people who are unemployed
Provide support for families who are short of money.
Defence
Science research
Universities
Diplomatic service (embassies. why do we have those)
Environmental protection and planning
National Parks
Overseas Aid
Agriculture
[Suggestion: Get each member of the group to vote on a scale of 1 to 10 according to how much they think it is a good idea to spend money on that item. Add up the results and see what priorities they would have. Put the following pie chart on an OHP and show them where our money does actually go and how it compares with their priorities (note statistics are for 1980.
The following exercise aims to show the balance between wanting to provide a lot of services and what people are willing to pay.
If you ran your BB Company what sort of things would you do?
Perhaps suggest: Gliding, sub aqua, camping in the USA, free trips to Mc Donald’s, if they have any trouble.
How would you pay for it?
If they suggest putting up subs ask them how far they would go. Ask them what they would do about those members who could no longer afford to pay at these levels.
[Suggestion: If appropriate you could talk about the problem that governments have with people desiring services but being unwilling or unable to pay taxes to cover them.]
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