Feel this country has become rotten - benefits

Actually births and deaths are basically equal at the moment see ons stats for England and Wales ( Scotland and NI do their own )

Its emigration and immigration that has a significant effect on population changes here in the UK

House prices halving overnight would not only crash the economy but put tens or hundreds of thousands on the street.

Halving overnight is wrong but they really need so stagnant for a long time.

We have property taxes - stamp duty when bought, council tax based on size of property, and inheritance and capital gains tax when sold

Council tax needs to be revamped.

Both housing cost inflation and wage suppression are directly linked to mass immigration.

We really need to get it back to around 100,000 people per year to allow the house builders to keep up with demand.

Our population increases have also being caused by people living longer though. We never recovered from the 08 crash & economic policy inflated assets. We have an ageing population, immigration is going nowhere.

We could build more flats also.
Cheaper to build.
Uses less land which is better environmentally and keeps farmland to feed people

Agree
Its also worth noting in the past when houses reduced in value people found themselves in negative equity and lost their homes
House prices halving overnight would not only crash the economy but put tens or hundreds of thousands on the street.

It is generally cheaper to live in shared accommodation

A studio will always be more expensive

Absolutely agree!
plus the overal benefits as calculated should include housing, reduction in ctax, free prescriptions etc whatever comes free or reduced. It should never be more to be on benefits and should be significantly less
If that’s what Labour want
to
Make Work Pay
^^

The fact of the matter is minimum wage means minimum lifestyle - things scale from there.

Most of us started out on minimum wage - I worked through Uni at minimum wage (picked a supermarket, so I got discount on my food/clothing and worked awkward shifts which at the time carried a premium). Then as time passed and I got my degree I got better jobs, and got a better lifestyle.

My brother didn't get the degree, and stayed on minimum wage jobs, so has flat-shared his whole life.

My sister is married, so works a minimum wage job, which allows her to look after her children while her husband has a full time job so they could afford a home (on the edge of town, in need of doing up, which they do themselves)

You cut your cloth to match your income.

Someone purely on benefits has nothing they can do to improve that income and lifestyle. Someone in any job does.

Some people argue that anorexia is self inflicted and a choice.

Addiction can be a result of self medication of mental health problems, so yes, it can be caused by a disability. Mental health services are shit - too much demand, too little resource, add in the need for a multi agency approach and things can fall apart, though things should, hopefully, be better than they were when addiction services wouldn't help you if you had untreated mental health issues and mental health services wouldn't help you if you had addiction issues...

Addiction is complicated.

We have property taxes - stamp duty when bought, council tax based on size of property, and inheritance and capital gains tax when sold

I acknowledge that it's a complex issue. I don't think I was screaming though. 😉

It could well be a vicious circle though. If illness has a profound effect on mobility it's going to be difficult to burn off calories too.

They do indeed but again it’s so hard to solve. Junk food is addictive, the companies that manufacture it are very aware of this but market it heavily. Walk down any high street and you are bombarded with every variety of unhealthy food you want. It’s much harder (and much less desirable) to find healthy options. And obviously price plays into that too.

As I said in my earlier post though this is so hard to change - no government wants to be labelled as making food more expensive which is precisely what they would be accused of if they tried to take on the big food manufacturers.

So while I sympathise that it’s easy to become overweight/obese and even normalised in our society I think solving the problem needs to be attempted on an individual level - everyone is responsible for their own food choices and the consequences of them.

Screaming “some people have medical conditions!” (as always happens when obesity is debated) I don’t think is helpful.

Would you rather have more people in employment or higher wages for those with employment on minimum wage?

Because that dial is about to swing from one to the other and think it will further fuel the welfare bill.

Absolutely not. A read a quote somewhere along lines of 'the civility of a country should be judged by how it treats its most vunerable' - we should support those who cannot support themselves.

But the issue is establishing the boundary between can't and won't. Those that won't work give those who physically can't work a bad name.

Both housing cost inflation and wage suppression are directly linked to mass immigration.

We really need to get it back to around 100,000 people per year to allow the house builders to keep up with demand.

But minimum wage should cover all expenses, as you say. So it’s not minimum wage that has a lot to answer for - it’s still not high enough - it’s employers not paying more to experienced workers. Everything is way too much balanced to businesses making massive profits (and yes, I know this isn’t always true of small businesses).

Let's not lie to ourselves and each other here, there is literally no other way to pack on so much excess weight you're morbidly obese other than overeating. Overeating means eating more calories than your body burns off. People who are morbidly obese don't need to disclose to anyone they got there by overeating, everyone already knows by looking at them.

I do take your point here. However there are medical conditions that make obesity more likely and poverty and poor diets tend to go hand in hand too.

It's more complex than that. Some disabilities could be seen as self inflicted - someone eats and drinks too much, gets heart disease and has a stroke, someone does an extreme sport and fractures spine and ends up paralysed, smokes and gets COPD. Some addictions - such as heroin, can link to inappropriate pain relief prescriptions by drs following an injury - think the oxycodone crisis in US. A soldier gets PTSD following being in a war zone defending our country, can't get mental health support they need, so self medicates with drugs out if desperation.

It's not always so clear cut as 'unlucky' and 'self inflicted', there can be many complex factors at play. People need to be supported, whether that's with addictions or disabilities, to make positive change. If they refuse help after many attempts, that then becomes challenging, but help rather than punishment should always be first option.

Well he would be a beggar on the streets most likely and may well end up dead at a young age. Is that what we should accept then ?

All they want is a reaction, denying that is the most satisfying approach.

On NMW, take home pay is £1721 based on 37.5 hours of work per week.

So actually £221 per month more than you state.

I sympathise with lots of what you’re saying but if you’re about to go down the some people take medication etc excuses for obesity then let’s get real.

I’m sure there are other reasons for a small number of people but for the vast majority of people poor diet and overeating are the reasons they are obese. I don’t think we can solve a problem without at least being honest about the cause of it.