I understand your point on the 17% progressive tax rate, but at the end of the day, I look at my tax bill and see how much tax I've paid versus how much my income is. When you factor in the standard married person's allowance, I paid just over 10% last year.
Thanks for the reasoned debate anyway. Much more than you get from others here. I can see we're coming at it from different angles, so there's no sense in pushing this too much further.
I get your point about living elsewhere in the UK. But again, $45k is far more than you would earn (after tax) working for a Sleezyjet or similar which is the choice facing most new joiners these days. It ain't glamorous!