If you believed the UK's media this country is massively overtaxed. The OECD has published new data which challenges this idea. Data for the OECD member states (which are generally the richest countries in the world, with some odd exceptions) for 2022 was as follows:

The UK is identified as GBR, and you have to look well to the right to find it.

What readers of this blog know is that tax does not fund government spending. However, there is a relationship between government spending and tax because tax has to be charged to recover most of what the government spends in order to control inflation. In that case this data implies that not only are we quite lowly taxed, but we also have lower than average public spending. No wonder nothing works in this country.

But things are also getting worse here.mon average across the OECD tax take did not change in 2022:

However, looking at individual country data tells a different story for the UK:

Now the UK is third from top.

So, the average UK worker gets poor public services but is now being asked to pay more for them, with the increase in their taxes being way above the international average.

Is it surprising that people are not happy?