Subject: Re: o/t, debtors and creditors,
"Oh, it would start small. And then grow like Social Security did. And like the Federal income tax did. Both of these started small, and then incrementally grew. How to boil a frog.
Google: UK VAT started at 10% and is now 20%."

Prior to VAT there was already a Purchase Tax which immediately before being replaced with VAT in 1973 had rates of 13, 22, 36 and 55%. This was down from 66% about a decade before and 100% during the second world war.

From what I remember from the 1980's onwards there was a conscious effort to try to switch taxes away from income and onto consumption by successive Conservative governments in the UK.