Open question - Financial

[Falstaff]

I don't mind paying the taxes, however uneven and unfair they might be. I feel I get something out of it in return. I work in cash as far as possible just to keep the non-digital currency alive and away from the banks.

So many folk stamping their feet on that soapbox it must be getting broken now, better put it away before someone gets hurt.
Soapbox? When I was a youngers that was called a home..we used to dream of having some soap to eat..you tell'em now they don't believe you..mutter, mutter, mutter, groan.

 

[TeeDee]

Anyone know where the saying comes from ? ie the Soapbox bit? origin??

Ref some earlier comments -Taxes seem to be a bit like blood banks - we all have an expectation that there will be Blood for us when we need it in times of need -but equally not everyone is happy to ' put in , to get out'

Of course , if you see Blood wasted , it does sour the moment a little.

 

[Falstaff]

Kind of Speakers corner, local elections etc, you needed a good strong box to stand on to be seen/heard before electric megaphones etc.. Same reason US politics refers to tub-thumping.

The fraility of the digital age/currency exposed this morning ; - 8am Amazon Web Services crash in the US, has knocked out lots of UK infrastructure - HMRC, Lloyds, loads of others. Whilst AWS are on it, an internal issue, and no doubt everybodies data is secure, it illustrates how vulnerable we are.

The server problem was in the US but that supports the "East" that's UK/Europe - via transatlantic cables, easily cut. No fail-safe immediate switch to other global servers.
The UK govt decided to buy data services from AWS based on lowest bid, ditto banks etc etc. Too many eggs in one basket. And the basket not even in the UK or Europe...
If such a shutdown were to be extended by a few days a lot of folk would be in dire straights - I wonder how long before it would all fall down - is that where the 72 hours personal resources recommendation comes from?
Doom sayers apart, I'm sure Govt's etc would get a fix in place eventually, but our food supply and currency are all dependent upon digital and very fragile.

 

[HorseGuy]

All my life I have worked hard, paid taxes and have always been more than happy do so despite paying far more into the system than what I have actually received or used. While there was always some degree of misappropriation or misspending of our taxes on things which I disagreed with in the past, they did to a greater or lesser degree still seem to be mostly going towards the UK public and things which made the life in the UK a better place for everyone. Great!

In recent years though, our taxes seem to be getting misspent much more often with less going towards things which benefit the British public and more going towards things that very few people actually want. Asylum hotels, skiver benefits, net zero, an ever expanding woke civil service, digital IDs or the paying for the privilege of surrendering the Chagos Islands to mention just a few of the recent examples.

If my tax money was still being spent on things that the people of the UK actually wanted and making the UK a better place to live I would be happy to continuing paying more into the system than my fair share. These days though so much of our tax funds are misappropriated and wasted on things which no one wants or asked for. They even seem to be actively going out of their way to deliberately misspend our taxes on things which are actually making British peoples lives worse rather than better! For the first time in my life I have begun to feel a grudge every time I pay taxes.

I do still work full-time for the moment, but I am lucky to be in a position where I don’t actually to need to if I don’t want to. Maybe I shall reduce my hours to part-time to deliberately lower my income thus considerably reducing the amount of taxes I pay. With so much of our taxes being misspent this is an option which I am very seriously considering doing for the next few years until things change. Besides, with all the extra free time this would create, there are plenty of wonderful and interesting things that I could do to help out in my local community which would improve the lives of both myself and the people around me for free.

You can have your soapbox back now. It’s starting to look a bit worn and tatty with all the overuse its been getting though.

 

[Broch]

Damn, I should have rented it out! - but it was home-made out of scrap anyway

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Reported to Health and Safety!

 

[Tengu]

I suspect most of us here will be liable to Death Duties and so can claim solidarity with the Gentry...

(No, Im not opening my home to the public yet).

 

[Chris]

Asylum hotels, skiver benefits, net zero, an ever expanding woke civil service, digital IDs or the paying for the privilege of surrendering the Chagos Islands to mention just a few of the recent examples.

Let’s not forget the single largest welfare handout of all: the triple lock pension at 42% of the whole welfare budget. 11.3% of total government spending if we include the fuel allowance and things.

Though of course we don’t think all retired people are skivers/scroungers/woke do we? So perhaps it’s not ideal to broadly stroke that brush of other groups.

 

[Broch]

Let’s not forget the single largest welfare handout of all: the triple lock pension at 42% of the whole budget. 11.3% of total government spending if we include the fuel allowance and things.

Though of course we don’t think all retired people are skivers/scroungers/woke do we? So perhaps it’s not ideal to broadly stroke that brush of other groups.

Interesting view - I'll discuss it with you in 20 or 30 years time

I worked 60 to 80 hours a week most weeks for my entire working life, paid my taxes and my NI contributions diligently, have never made any claim for support despite having extreme difficult periods. I've been happy to pay for police, fire brigade, education .... But, now, when we are reaching a stage in life when we might need medical support etc. there's 6 week waiting for a GP appointment and 2 years for a knee or hip replacement - pensioners feel there has been a breach of contract in the system.

The percentage of the population currently economically inactive (not working and not looking for work) is ridiculous; 16-24 39%, 25-49 12%, 50 - 64 26%! We cannot support our population if that continues.

(oops, this soapbox is getting a bit creaky)

 

[HorseGuy]

Let’s not forget the single largest welfare handout of all: the triple lock pension at 42% of the whole budget. 11.3% of total government spending if we include the fuel allowance and things.

Though of course we don’t think all retired people are skivers/scroungers/woke do we? So perhaps it’s not ideal to broadly stroke that brush of other groups.

I agree.

The pension system is part of a mathematical Ponzi scheme which sooner or later is going to collapse whether people like it or not. This is a shame for all the people who have already paid into the pension Ponzi (myself included) but this is just a fact of mathematics and reality which one day will have to be faced. It can either happen sooner via voluntarily means or forced upon us later via external natural forces when the maths of Ponzi economics come to meet physical real world resource limitations. We are not quite there yet but one day it is going to happen and when it does it will be beyond the power of anyone to control or stop it from happening (France are actually about to face this point in their mathematical pension Ponzi very soon).

As for the other welfare handouts, I have no problem with any genuine claimants and cases (there by the grace of god go I and all that guff) but we all know that a large portion of welfare claimants are skivers who are playing the system for their own benefit.

PS Are we straying too far into the topic of politics now? I don't want to get a telling off.

 

[nigelp]

Total migration and asylum spend is/will (20/25) be 6.4 billion - so back of fag packet calculation - 2.5% of the above total.

That’s just facts. I’m not allowed to have political views, so just stating facts or I get a DM by a mod.

 

[Chris]

Interesting view - I'll discuss it with you in 20 or 30 years time

I worked 60 to 80 hours a week most weeks for my entire working life, paid my taxes and my NI contributions diligently, have never made any claim for support despite having extreme difficult periods. I've been happy to pay for police, fire brigade, education .... But, now, when we are reaching a stage in life when we might need medical support etc. there's 6 week waiting for a GP appointment and 2 years for a knee or hip replacement - pensioners feel there has been a breach of contract in the system.

The percentage of the population currently economically inactive (not working and not looking for work) is ridiculous; 16-24 39%, 25-49 12%, 50 - 64 26%! We cannot support our population if that continues.

(oops, this soapbox is getting a bit creaky)

It’s not my view, just to be clear, it was just a response to the popular rightwing talking points that like to paint everything as ‘woke’ and of people on benefits as ‘skivers’.

In fact benefits are in the most part going to people who actually need them, whether that’s pensioners or people out of work due to disability or suchforth.

As the forum doesn’t usually allow political discussion, I don’t think it’s good to let one perspective which generalises tens of thousands of people sit there unchallenged if it is going to be allowed.

 

[nigelp]

Interesting view - I'll discuss it with you in 20 or 30 years time

I worked 60 to 80 hours a week most weeks for my entire working life, paid my taxes and my NI contributions diligently, have never made any claim for support despite having extreme difficult periods. I've been happy to pay for police, fire brigade, education .... But, now, when we are reaching a stage in life when we might need medical support etc. there's 6 week waiting for a GP appointment and 2 years for a knee or hip replacement - pensioners feel there has been a breach of contract in the system.

The percentage of the population currently economically inactive (not working and not looking for work) is ridiculous; 16-24 39%, 25-49 12%, 50 - 64 26%! We cannot support our population if that continues.

(oops, this soapbox is getting a bit creaky)

Sadly the taxes and NI I pay today support your pension and all welfare and government spending rather than some pot of money set aside for my retirement.

 

[Chris]

Arguing amongst old and young, left and right, low income and high income, black and white, immigrant and non-immigrant, public and private sector, able bodied and disabled… it’s all a very convenient distraction for those who loot and pillage our assets, infrastructure and environment, eh?

I suspect we’ve somewhat strayed from the topic TeeDee initially asked about.

 

[Broch]

Sadly the taxes and NI I pay today support your pension and all welfare and government spending rather than some pot of money set aside for my retirement.

Yeh, I'm well aware of that, and we had a smaller ageing population to fund. But, unless we generate a culture of working for all the things that people see as their 'rights', it will only get a lot worse.

 

[nigelp]

So. In terms of investment.
What’s the return on investing in yourself? Paying for training or education that inhances your currant work and pay prospects, promotion or changing jobs for either higher financial rewards or employment certainty?

You could invest 10k in gold or stocks and get a generous 25% return over 2/3 years or do same for yourself and get that straight away as a promotion or enhanced employment.

 

[TeeDee]

Damn, I should have rented it out! - but it was home-made out of scrap anyway

Ahhh,... Bourgeoisie

 

[HorseGuy]

Arguing amongst old and young, left and right, low income and high income, black and white, immigrant and non-immigrant, public and private sector, able bodied and disabled… it’s all a very convenient distraction for those who loot and pillage our assets, infrastructure and environment, eh?

Abso-bloody-lutely! I could not agree more.

I suspect we’ve somewhat strayed from the topic TeeDee initially asked about.

To bring us back on topic (kind of on topicish anyway ).

If we were on a true redeemable gold backed money standard for our currency rather than the debt-backed fiat currency system which we currently use, the government would not be able to spend any money which they do not actually have. This forced fiscal restraint would have prevented most of the problems which we've been discussing from ever occurring in the first place.

 

[TeeDee]

Arguing amongst old and young, left and right, low income and high income, black and white, immigrant and non-immigrant, public and private sector, able bodied and disabled… it’s all a very convenient distraction for those who loot and pillage our assets, infrastructure and environment, eh?

I suspect we’ve somewhat strayed from the topic TeeDee initially asked about.

When the house is already on fire and its becoming engulfed - sometimes its better to reach for the marshmallows rather than the pail.

 

[TeeDee]

So. In terms of investment.
What’s the return on investing in yourself? Paying for training or education that inhances your currant work and pay prospects, promotion or changing jobs for either higher financial rewards or employment certainty?

You could invest 10k in gold or stocks and get a generous 25% return over 2/3 years or do same for yourself and get that straight away as a promotion or enhanced employment.

Would that not also be dependent upon
A) Age
B) Actual experience IN role - as opposed to be theory based.