Definitely shifting to the right
Latest Political Compass score: (-0.25, -0.21). I've adopted many of the fundamental points of the authoritarian-right consensus and it's making me at once squicky and fiercely proud. I am almost certain I'll end up as a conservative of some description in the future.

This has been at least partly sparked by the recent report from the Rowntree Foundation - which incidentally I think has an excellent basis in methodology but gets enough wrong to produce horribly skewed outcomes (like taking a council flat in Loughborough as the basis for housing costs). I feel incredibly guilty to this day about claiming benefits, and having claimed them in late 2005, firmly agree with those who consider them excessive, especially given the other incentives provided for those on benefits. At my most reactionary I want to propose the removal of all benefits; at my more reasonable, I would call for their replacement with a set minimum Citizen's Income and no further assistance whatsoever. Tax would then be very low for low earners, and income tax would in fact be generally low, as the tax burden would be heavily shifted towards indirect taxes designed to shift consumption patterns.

I also firmly believe the vast majority of the British public are awful with money. Most claim the headline £13,400 figure is laughably inadequate, but I would find it remarkably easy to live on that in Southampton. I've found a studio flat in a reasonable location for £450pcm including all bills; food costs are around £35 per week; £20/month buys a bus pass that takes me everywhere I want to go in Southampton; I presently spend £22.50 on musical tuition per week (£10 for composition, £7.50 for singing, £5 for piano), hardly buy any new clothes, maybe £5/month in all, my mobile costs around £15/month, and there are no other major expenses I'd then face. My last estimate of living costs, yesterday, came to £195 per week; that was before I found this particular flat. There's even one for £400pcm including bills somewhere else too. And with £22.50 of that expenditure easily removed, it looks incredibly easy to live happily off less than £200 per week in this city. Indeed, whatever I'm earning, I'll stick to that level of expenditure, and then watch with an insufferable level of smugness when - not if, when - the chickens come home to roost on the wastrels around me.

My new ambition; become an outright homeowner by the time I'm 35. If I'm in continuous employment between graduation and then, this should be a doddle. If I need the state to live, I shall deservedly die.