To think the govt are purposefully trying to keep the poor down?

[Alltheseboys]

Seems like with all these cuts the govt are deliberately trying to keep the working class down?

minishimi you are missing the point.There are no jobs because people have less and less income to pay for the goods and services businesses provide.This applies just as much (in fact more so) to business startups as established ones.Add to that you need the outlay to pay for your initial equipment advertising and to tide you over until(if ever) the business pays you a living wage.Add to that how the govt are going to introduce conditionality whereby they will 'assum' self-employed make at least minimum wage and base tax credits on that.

I think it seems worse in the UK because of all those years as seeing property as a way to make money - something not seen so much in the rest of Europe. All those tv programmes about how to tart up your house to make a profit or to rent out at a premium......The property market is now fucked. Contrast with other countries where your house is your home - multi-generational living more common - and you only MOVE if you need to for work. UK now has high house prices, little social housing, and a poorly regulated rental industry. I think THIS needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Alpinepony - doesn't matter whether you use private healthcare, or put your kids in private school, or only drive on the M6 toll road - you are still benefiting from state healthcare, education, spending on transport and everything else. The doctors you see in the private sector were all educated at the taxpayer's expense (the younger ones will have paid fees of course but they are only a tiny fraction of the cost of medical training). The teachers at that private school will have been trained by the state. Both sets of professionals are regulated by the state, to protect you and your children against negligence or incompetence as far as possible.

People who pay lots of tax benefit from the things taxes are spent on. They benefit from tax credits, too - because these are a subsidy for employers who don't pay a living wage that ensure there are people to do all the low-paid but essential work like cleaning, caring and emptying the bins - and driving lorries that take all our food to the supermarket.

Society would fall apart very quickly if all the cleaners, bin men and people who stack the shelves in supermarkets went on strike. We'd notice their absence a lot quicker than the absence of the sort of self-important directors and senior managers who shuffle paper about and think they are jolly important (I'm a paper shuffler myself, but realistic about my value to society compared to a carer).