It's going to be a bit shit for everyone but I don't see any other option. Stuff needs fixing because the country has been fucked. We have no money because the country has been fucked. The government has been clumsy so far but I don't think they are too far away from the deeply unpopular pragmatism we need to sort at least the foundations out.
2 May 2023
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I just get annoyed by the politicking - surely the obvious answer was to reverse the ridiculous NI trap set by Hunt as well as the other increases they are going to do, and state that we all need to pay more tax to sort out the issues rather than the ridiculous narrative that some people deserve to pay more tax and others don't.
We need a broader tax base - like in the Scandi countries - not the idea that seems to have been promoted that all the tax rises can be paid by "other people"
The fallacy that an increase in Employers NI and the freezing of tax bands aren't a tax on the working people.
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Country's fucked, mate. Look at the proportions of people who work (and therefore pay most of the tax) and those who don't - it's just not sustainable with the lifestyles everyone wants.
No-one can be honest about necessary trade-offs because they are too scared of the headlines. Last person to try was May and that just got called a "dementia tax" and binned.
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Yep, everything has to be short term because everybody wants jam today and nobody has the brains to give a fuck about the future, including about their grandchildren and great-grandchildren frying. The media is very complicit in all this and, as you say, the politicans (especially left wing ones) are always petrified.
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Not complicit, driving.
Reasonably petrified, because they are constantly attacked. Compare the scrutiny on tories and their policies, and the impact on the country, with the treatment meted out to other political parties. It's not a secret. The conservatives were formed to preserve the establishment, they tell you that they are the party of business (ie not the party of the people - people can get fucked, we want profit for our mates).
We let the tories empty the cupboard. We have a choice. Don't have access to any plasters, have no resources to develop new opportunities, and gradually die of starvation, or, the only real alternative, pay to put the things we need back in the cupboard.
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You could choose to phrase this as "some people can comfortably pay more tax and others can't"
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I think we need to broaden the tax base, not create a them and us situation through political posturing.
We're paying £7k extra tax per year. We can't afford it without taking personal pay cuts. So wage rises will be less next year
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Of course all cases are different. There's a tendency to think that every loss is personal, every gain is taken for granted. It may be that the benefit may be that future healthcare costs less. You might get an ambulance in time to save your life, rather than lie on the floor in agony for hours. Poor children might not be so hungry that they don't sell your kids drugs. That sort of thing.
There's a balance to be struck. There's fuck all point having an extra 7K when the fascist project is just plotting new ways to rinse you of it with their business partners through deregulated price gouging and the suchlike.
You are either persuaded by the benefits of society, or you are not. Nobody in their right mind could argue that it has sufficient social capital and services currently. There is no alternative than to raise the capital from somewhere and what seems to be largely uncommentated on is that the vast majority is through borrowing and stimulated growth.
Brexshitting is estimated by some to have cost us 140 billion alone, to date.
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You're inflation-busting!
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Freezing the tax allowances is broadening the tax base. So… yay?
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Not against that on principle, just think that they should be upfront about it
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Just boarded a train to NYC and realized I left my headphones in my dressing gown pocket.
Not ideal.
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Are you having a zoom call, was the train on time and did you pay the fare?
These are standard mandatory Talkback train post details.
I don't make the rules.
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No Zoom calls - on principle, I refuse to schedule Zoom or Team meetings for when I’m on a train.
Yes, full fare for seat in 1st Class, $484 round trip since you inquired.
Now having to listen to various other calls around me from other passengers. Only another 2 1/2 hours to go….
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You think that you have problems! The wifey is basically bankrupting me. She has had to take another job which takes her out of town a lot and I am having to pay for her mistakes in her business whilst still trying to pay for all the repairs to the house and the lawsuit. Currently cost me $100k. She is now taking 6K out of my tax fund to buy inventory for her Q4 business. But, that's not what is annoying me. It's a case of working 90 hour weeks and getting out of the credit card hole she has created. What is really annoying me is that she decided over the weekend that one of my credit cards (All my debts are on interest free cards until the spring), had some credit on it and she bought a $3500 mattress for the bed!!!!!!!
"Oh don't worry, it has a one year money back Guarantee, and a lifetime warranty with it". Well I still have to pay for it you daft bint!!!!
We have an organic mattress already but apparently it is bunching in the middle. I said, "Do you sleep in the middle?" and she said "no". So why do we need a new mattress?????
Madness.
Chicago: Very quickly going broke
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A bed made out of piles of comics is very comfortable.....
