Well quite. I think he's made that clear in earlier posts.
The top rate of tax in the UK for the current tax year is 45%, though it was 50% so I don't blame anyone for getting that wrong. You would only pay that rate if you're earning over £150,000 ($242,835 according to Google) and probably benefit from a few loopholes. I personally only pay 20% and that's after the first £9,440 which is tax free. More to the point, obviously my taxes help fund the NHS but, if I get sick, I won't be penalised by higher premiums next year (or losing coverage altogether pre-Obamacare).
What, in your eyes, qualifies as real work though? A restaurant can't function if no one is waiting tables or cooking the food. If no one's manning the cash register, no one is getting paid. I've worked my share of crappy jobs and some good ones and it's generally been the crap ones that have required more work. As for hours, I was actually with some new starters this morning and one of the things they were told is that they won't let them work 70 hours because you'll make mistakes. They generally limit people to 50 and that's only at peak times, otherwise it's 40. This is not some woolly, left-wing, unionised, hippy factory; it's a soulless, tax dodging, multinational that recognises that the more hours people work the less productive they get.