Taxation and Systems Thinking!

Taxation comes up often as an issue in the General Election Campaign. Student top up fees and tuition fees, for example. Surely students are destined to earn higher salaries than most once they get good jobs, and so should be expected to pay back at least some of the costs of their education?
Charles Kennedy must be a Systems Thinker, though. He said in an interview; "I am a graduate, and so are the doctors and many of the nurses who looked after my wife when she was giving birth to our new baby. Even if I was a non-graduate, I would be pleased to know that some of my taxes have gone to pay for these people to get the best knowledge and training they can so that they can look after my family and bring my first child safely into the world".
And of course, graduates will pay back more in taxes anyway because they will be more likely to be in the top-rate band of tax.

Another example is the Council tax. Why should I pay (as a child-free person) to educate other people's children? They chose to have them, surely they should pay for the consequence of that decision? Again, this ignores the true value of education. A Systems Thinker would say, yes, but educated people are likely to benefit the economy more, and ultimately pay for the wider range of public services everyone benefits from, including the state pension, for example. And there is much evidence to say that educated people are less likely to commit crime, meaning a safer world for everyone.

Taxation is an issue that can only be sensibly viewed from the perspective of the wider system, and with broad agreement on the Aim of the System.