£900,000 of taxpayer’s money to be spent on painting the PM’s plane

Government spending is a complicated business. In a mixed economy, the role of the government is undoubtedly vital in providing much needed public goods such as roads, schools, hospitals, and of course every economics teacher’s favourite public good: the humble streetlight.

When the government spends money in the economy, you often hear the term taxpayer’s money. Why? Simple: because it is. People in a country pay tax, be it income tax, council tax, VAT and so on, and then the government uses all of this money from taxation to fund their spending.

For this reason, government spending does, and absolutely should, come under great scrutiny. None more so than when it comes at great cost, and for seemingly little gain.

This is exactly what is happening right now in the UK after it was announced that £900,000 of taxpayer’s money is to be spent on redecorating the plane used by the British PM and members of the royal family.  

According to sources inside the government, the dull grey exterior of the plane is to be repainted in red, white, and blue, the colours of the Union Flag.

£900,000 is a lot of money to spend on a paint job, and when money is spent by a government, there is always an opportunity cost. This meaning that by spending the money on the plane, that is £900,000 which can no longer be spent on the next best alternative. In this case, many would argue that it is not just the ‘next best’, but rather much better alternatives, and many of them!

This is especially the case right now, with Covid-19 still spreading and the UK economy suffering more than most. To give an example, a course of Dexamethasone, the wonder drug which has recently been found to cut Covid-19 deaths, costs only £5. The opportunity cost of painting the plane could then be expressed as 180,000 courses of Dexamethasone. That’s a lot of lives which could be saved!