Pope, just a bit of info on a point that I'm pretty sure we'll never agree on.
When we emigrated I'd worked in the UK for the best part of 20 years and paid Income Tax on my earnings. I never thought twice about it although the main benefit I received was once getting a tooth filled. When I eventually retired in Aus I was advised that I did qualify for a small pension from the UK so I applied for it. When it came through I had to laugh, it was a pittance, and I thought it was typical of what I was used to. That was a few years ago now and the sum I get now is exactly the same as when it started, to me that was much the same as the mean spirited UK Govt attitude that I was used to.
When I hear anybody speak about their Income Tax I've always appreciated that the sum involved covers that person for life and that includes retirement.
Were you not under the protection of the police in that time?
Did you drive on roads that were maintained with those taxes? You may even have been there as brand new motorways were built with your tax money.
Did you have children who went to state school with those taxes, or perhaps went to university at heavily subsidised rates? Because even if you didn't, you would have been looked after at some point by professionals who did.
Was your country invaded by the Soviets in that time? No, because your taxes paid for an army to stop that (along with nuclear weapon deterrent)
Regardless of whether you used your doctor or not, you were able to go to work each day safe in the knowledge that if you did get sick it wouldn't bankrupt you.
As for work, you lived in an era of nearly full employment due to the nationalisation of industries. Whatever private line of work you were in, you had neighbours who had jobs because of your taxes and a lot of people you enjoyed socialising with could afford to do so because of those taxes.
You used subsidised trains because of those taxes. You had lights that came on, water that ran from a tap and coal to put in your fire because they were subsidised (in your day) by those taxes.
Coming from a generation that is categorically told that organising a sustainable pension income is our responsibility, I really have no sympathy with the argument that your state pension, after just 20 years of contribution, is a pittance.
I have even less time for the argument that you paid taxes and got nothing back, so someone of your generation is owed a freebie on COVID- which was Poacher's original argument