to ask all of the 1% here (anyone earning over £20'000) what you are doing to help the 99%?

[ethnicalMarion]

If your earn over 20k in the UK you are part of the 1%. Aibu to think that this 1% should be helping the 99% of the world more?

why not direct your ire at the people sitting on the kind of income that you and I will never see and paying fuck-all tax on it to boot?

because TNCs/super rich won't care about a simplistic armchair activist (heck thy don't care about the government or EU) but people on here are wiling to bite.

Are you advocating a utopia or communism ethicalmarion?

Earnings are a very poor way to measure the wealth of the top 1%

Bill Gates has a very low income now - because he does not need one.

The better way to measure the global top 1% is
those with net assets of over £800,000
so, taking into account your house, your pension pot real of public sector assumed your savings, your chattels

My income is well over £20k, but my net assets are well under £800k
so I am not in the global 1%

I'm off food shopping. It's YABU from about 175 posters ethicalmarion, and I don't think we can all be wrong. Good luck with your education.

Frankly you lost me with your super-sanctimonious user name.

ethnicalMarion

I started this thread as so many around here blame the 1% for anything and everything wrong.

But I don't see anyone in the top 1% of global earners here crying out to pay more tax.

Nobody wants to pay more tax. We all know we have to pay it but the point is to pay only what is due and not a penny more (the job of an accountant is to make sure you pay as little as possible whilst remaining within the spirit of the law).

The rich or wealthy generally pay huge amounts already (excluding those that screw the system) so it is poor form to blame the wealthy.

ethnical
You are aware I take it that the top 10% in the UK pay around half of all income tax.
You are aware I take it that just the cost of free state education for their children is more than the total tax paid by nearly half of all families.

Rant and rave at the rich bitches with their kids at boarding school all you like, but each of their taxes pay for 50-100 poor kids to go to state schools.

Stamp duty on millionaires houses pays for free prescriptions for those on benefits.

Yes, the super rich and multinational corporations have been able to get away with much too much in the last 20 years but do not suggest higher taxes for the rich without understanding how the global tax system work.

I'd be all for a true redistribution of global wealth if the cost of living was the same around the world.

Purely going on 20k being a lot in another country just doesn't work at all. It is way too simplistic. That '1%' you speak of isn't a true representation of the facts.

EthicalMarion

'I don't see anyone in the top 1% of global earners here crying out to pay more tax'

here. Warren Buffet , one of the richest men in the world told congress to tax the wealthy - after making the large ever charitable donation to the Gates Foundation

You didn't really research this did you?

But I don't see anyone in the top 1% of global earners here crying out to pay more tax

Well no, because an awful lot of philantraphists realise they can utilise their money to benefit others in need far better than the government can.

Btw everybody can pay more tax if you really want to..you can just make a donation to HMRC. Most of us are just decent people who try to balance earning a wage with paying our way and supporting a fair society.Nobody should be berated for doing more of any of those three if they chose to.

What do you do to help them, OP?

I think most of you misunderstand what the 1% Vs the 99% means.

I have no idea where you are gettting your alledged "quantified" information from. The 1% certainly isn't someone earning over £20,000 a year, it's certainly not someone who's earning £156,000 a year, or someone who has £800,000 worh of assets.

The 1% are the people at the top of the pyrimid, the untouchables that hold all the worlds wealth and power in their hands. The big cheeses in oil and fuel, the big cheeses in banking, basically the big cheeses in big global business and when i mean big business i don't mean the head of Tescos or Primark, think much much bigger.
I'm talking about the most powerful people in business and therfore some of the most powerful people in the world, and no, the leaders we are shown to lead their Countries are not the most powerful people in the world, they are just the puppets of their very rich and powerful masters, but also a very big part of the problem as they are happy yo do their masters bidding.

These big powerful business men are ruled by and very friendly (and are also likely related to in some respects) with some of the wealthiest families on this rock. Wealthy Families that have lines going back very far into History. These Families have continuously held most of the power, because they hold most of the worlds wealth and resources in their hands.

It was "naice" to see Cameron and Prince Charles make a fawning visit to the House of Saud this week to pay their respects. The House of Saud can be used as an exmaple of one of these rich and powerful elitest families that hold much power and wealth. The Rothschlds are another example, as are the Windsors and all their related Lineage.

There are others but i can't do all the work here, if you are interested, look into it for yourself. Or you can just read fudged statistics and explanations from .gov websites and take that all as full fact.

Someone earning £200,000 a year is certainly in a high percentage earning bracket, but they are not a 1%er in it's real definition.

The Good Samaritan was loaded.

Someone mentioned gift aid and how they don't understand it sothey never agree to it.

It basically means that, provided you pay tax in the UK, for every £1 donated (cash or goods sold at charity shops) the charity can claim an extra 25p from the government. Basically the govt gives your chose charity a 25% bonus from the taxes you pay. It's extremely important to charities and costs you nothing (provided the value of the gift aid doesn't exceed what you pay in tax). Please reconsider letting the charities claim it on your behalf. It's free money.

It's free money.
Well, strictly, it still comes out of our taxes.

No way is 99% of the population are earning under 20k. As someone else has said we mainly help by paying money into the taxation system and taking less out. Also odd charity and food bank donation.

Actually I would very happily pay more tax - I look at some of the Nordic countries in envy, as I think there are so many things around social and health care that they have got really right. It's bloody expensive though, and the payback is higher tax (and very high costs of living) so salaries (and welfare payments) have to reflect that.

The issue that I have is how my taxes are currently spent: on wars I don't agree with, in "aid" to regimes I can't support, in priorities which just aren't mine.

You've pissed me off though OP - I can say that I would pay more tax because I don't struggle to put food on the table, or dress my children, or pay for school trips, or pay the bills. I don't heat only one room because that's what I can afford, I can run a car (and repair it when it goes wrong without having to miss a credit card payment to balance it out). I can pay more tax because I can afford it.

I say again: this is all relative.

I tell you what I get fed up of, all my school day friends on Facebook talking about their child tax credits, working tax credits and child benefit woes, then posting piccies of their latest spa treatment, haircut/nail job etc ... I tell you what I do, I work bloody hard, I pay tax at 40%, am out of the house from 8am to 8pm, rarely see my kids on a weekday, husband does a similar role and has similar woes, and do have fluffing time for nail jobs and haircut spa day nonsense let alone can I afford it because of all the childcare/bills and mortgage we pay - so no I don't feel I need to cough up more as I think what we contribute in taxes more than keeps my jobless compadres in a good enough lifestyle

Saying that anyone earning over £20,000 is in the top 1% globally is an entirely specious argument, since as others have said, it's a lot of money in some parts of the world and really not much in others (ie ours). Anyone struggling to manage in the UK on £20,000 shouldn't feel any degree of guilt about it tbh.

I would often love to know how much people on low enough incomes to receive income-related benefits who carp about "high incomes" actually think £40,000 say looks like in the bank account at the end of the month (remember no income-linked benefits to supplement it!!). People on income-related benefits also often conveniently forget that they don't necessarily have to pay for some really quite expensive things that people not on these benefits do have to.

the top 1% in the uk are on an income over £120,000 per annum.

This is an inflammatory thread started to make us all feel like we should de more whilst those with a huge disposable income will continue to do little.

I don't see how £20,000 can be in the top 1% when there are so many celebrities, footballers, ceo's on millions per year. Maybe we should focus on the top 0.01% more.

As a pp said Money is worthless on it's own, it is only worth what it can buy. In this country, £20k doesn't buy a lot, in many other countries, it buys a great lifestyle. When you take into account ridiculous house prices someone earning £20,000 can have their income halved before they have even started spending on utilities and food and essentials nevermind being frivolous with money or donating it.

I hate the argument that I work bloody hard, I pay tax at 40% etc etc.

I work very hard too - for barely over the minimum wage and don't earn enough to pay tax. . I am happy to donate to a number of charities and do quite a bit of voluntary work - have just spend most of sunday sorting out the stock in our local food bank.

But so what, does that make me a 'better' person than someone who pays 40% tax and therefore contributes a lot financially to the country's expenses. .

What is the logic to this thread?