Off the point but light-hearted ....
I'm not cribbing about tax or questioning the value for money but there was a really interesting point alluded to in the program about the life of a medieval peasant (I think it was Terry Jones, on BBC). He made the point that their lives may not have been as bad as we like to presume - for instance, he had figured out that we have to pay double the tax they did. They had to work 4 weeks a year for the lord for free for his protection and use of the land (i.e. tax). It got me thinking and if you take 18.75% of say, €35,000, I reckon that's 45 working days a year in tax, so technically, that person won't be earning their "own money" until week 10, or 1st March. Scary or what.
Rebecca