Are you optimistic about the UK's future?

[dweezil]

Another classic...

Why on earth should people be taxed because their kids have grown up and left home? It's what this idea amounts to most of the time.

We have the opposite at the moment; in many cases it's expensive to downsize and any surplus cash becomes taxable when you die.

The second one to die could have a large untaxable asset, sell it and you're into c40% IHT.

My mother's just had this, luckily she'd blown her surplus cash on care home fees so not too much to pay.

Must say i felt a bit guilty living in a four bed alone and looked into the options but that was solved when current OH moved in with three kids.

There should be some incentive for moving to a smaller house when the kids leave but a punitive bedroom tax isn't it.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Sorry, I was just playing along with the game of daft hypothetical scenarios/ideas, is that not what we were doing?

When I seize power I'll be introducing a Hi-Fi Bling tax beginning at 98% for USB cables costing more than £10, any sort of 'upgrade' fuse and all the ridiculous blingy oligarch turntables that need two grown men to lift them.

Pre-1970 classics will remain tax free.

 

[kendo]

Are you optimistic about the UK's future?

 

[Ponty]

Sorry, I was just playing along with the game of daft hypothetical scenarios/ideas, is that not what we were doing?

Except you were being serious IMHO. I’m trying to illustrate a point (badly maybe). Give everyone a million quid and you’ll still have poverty because the price of everything is relative and will skyrocket accordingly.

 

[ks.234]

Except you were being serious IMHO. I’m trying to illustrate a point (badly maybe). Give everyone a million quid and you’ll still have poverty because the price of everything is relative and will skyrocket accordingly.

Who, apart from Milton Bloody Friedman, has said anything about giving everyone a million quid?

 

[matt j]

Except you were being serious IMHO. I’m trying to illustrate a point (badly maybe). Give everyone a million quid and you’ll still have poverty because the price of everything is relative and will skyrocket accordingly.

Ok, well in that case let's just do nothing then eh? So long as there's plenty of Ferraris in Henley nought else matters.

 

[Rockmeister]

well, so
again
and ignored again doubtless,
apart from posting theories
what
exactly
is the solution?
In detail please

 

[Darmok]

Am I optimistic for the UKs future?

Noooo, so long as the despicable tories still exist.

My suggestion, two three word slogans used widely as pubic placards to be displayed and waved around everywhere before the next GE.

Number one, "Stupids vote conservative."

Number two, "Don't be Stupid."

 

[matt j]

well, so
again
and ignored again doubtless,
apart from posting theories
what
exactly
is the solution?
In detail please

https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...st-families-raise-22bn-year-reform-inequality

 

[Rockmeister]

too simplistic and short term.
Tax them and they'll take their wealth abroad.
longer term?

 

[ks.234]

Ok, well in that case let's just do nothing then eh? So long as there's plenty of Ferraris in Henley nought else matters.

Somehow billions and billions in Henley is not a problem, but a living wage for nurses obviously is.

Somehow paying nurses a living wage is always inflationary to monetarist minds. However, when it comes to giving billions to Tory Donors or a monarch, those monetarist minds go all Keynesian and instead of inflation the same spending magically becomes a revenue generating investment in all things good and heart warming.

This is the deliberate hypocrisy of monetarist thinking, it is only ever applied to spending money on public services, never when applied to spending on private interests.

 

[Mole Man]

I recall having a conversation with a friend on this subject in about 2013 or so. I ventured that “The UK is finished…”, and my friend (about ten years older than me with a son at University at that time), sharply disagreed with my assessment. Looking at things from the current vantage point in 2023, I feel vindicated. Okay, neither my friend or myself could have predicted Brexit and all the associated fallout for the UK, but I can’t think of a single thing that has got better in the last ten years, just worse…

 

[matt j]

too simplistic and short term.
Tax them and they'll take their wealth abroad.
longer term?

Abroad where? it says other countries do the same. I don't buy it, they always threaten to take it abroad, but as Ponty is fond of telling us blighty is such a fantastic place so presumably they'd want to stay.

 

[Ponty]

Who, apart from Milton Bloody Friedman, has said anything about giving everyone a million quid?

It’s an extreme example to illustrate the point that currency creation is inflationary and in a world of finite resources, inequality is unavoidable.

 

[ks.234]

It’s an extreme example to illustrate the point that currency creation is inflationary and in a world of finite resources, inequality is unavoidable.

Not true. Simply not true

 

[Ponty]

Ok, well in that case let's just do nothing then eh? So long as there's plenty of Ferraris in Henley nought else matters.

Of course we shouldn’t do nothing. A safety net to catch those who need genuine help is essential. What a safety net shouldn’t be is permanent (except in certain circumstances, clearly). Apparently if you are unemployed and receive benefits, you receive pension credits to count towards state pension entitlement. If you work part time but not enough to reach the LEL (lower earnings level), you receive no such credit. That’s just plain wrong, as it encourages people not to work. That’s just one example, no doubt there are dozens more which encourage the wrong behaviour.

 

[Darmok]

Not true. Simply not true

Perfect reply, imho.

I am correct about what I just posted up-thread!

Evidence is clearly evident.

 

[ks.234]

Perfect reply, imho.

I am correct about what I just posted up-thread!

Evidence is clearly evident.

Yes. Plenty of evidence posted to refute monetarist assertions, but such assertions are held in spite of evidence, so no point posting it. The simple fact is that QE and Covid clearly demonstrates that spending is not necessarily inflationary and to use false assumptions to deny the possibility of equality really does point to the total immorality of our current thinking

 

[matt j]

Of course we shouldn’t do nothing. A safety net to catch those who need genuine help is essential. What a safety net shouldn’t be is permanent (except in certain circumstances, clearly). Apparently if you are unemployed and receive benefits, you receive pension credits to count towards state pension entitlement. If you work part time but not enough to reach the LEL (lower earnings level), you receive no such credit. That’s just plain wrong, as it encourages people not to work. That’s just one example, no doubt there are dozens more which encourage the wrong behaviour.

Wow, that's a new one on me. So now dole scroungers are doing so to enjoy a lavish state pension? Sorry, but that's a load of bollocks.

 

[Darmok]

Wow, that's a new one on me. So now dole scroungers are doing so to enjoy a lavish state pension? Sorry, but that's a load of bollocks.

Ha ha, yeah.

His lot cut services and benefits and still expect the economy to grow.

They haven't got an F'IN clue.