How to help the UK

[Cavviemum29]

Hi all just wondering if my thoughts on the UK and it’s finances at the moment is silly and damaging or if there might be good some points (the film I was watching wasn’t very interesting)

1. I think the minimum wages needs abolishing.. I can’t believe we have a minimum wage and that employers/businesses actually chose to pay the minimum. The wages should be an increasing system that stops when you hit retirement.

2. I think the wages should be based on a system off age maybe.. so ages 20-30 you are paid between £25.00 an hour, 30-40 you are paid £35.00 an hour, 40-50 you are paid £45.00 an hour and so on. (I think you’d have to work out an extra wage/benefit from businesses if workers were in specialised roles but i’m not sure what that would be)

3. I think tax should be set at a percentage regardless of income so 20% for individuals and 40% businesses or 25% for individuals and 50% for businesses.

4. I think tax should then stop when the person hits 50 as then the person can use that time to save for their retirement so the income tax isn’t funding state pensions.

5. I also think councils should be in charge of their own funding. The government oversee each local authority however the local authority keeps their taxes from people on their area and it goes on funding schools, hospitals etc. in their area.

6. This one might be unpopular but I think the NHS needs people to be paying for their GP appointments and dentist appointments and when they need hospital care or a diagnosis/intervention such as surgery etc. that there is no charge.

I wonder if these would be wildly unpopular and silly but I was just enjoying sitting & thinking what could be done differently..

The minimum wage was introduced because people were being paid £1.95 ph to sew buttonholes and £2.95 ph to clean

Thank goodness you're not in charge eh? Sounds like you put a lot thought into it, bless.

@BabyOnBoard90 I know that they are probably terrible ideas but I was just say thinking this film is rubbish and so I started scrolling on mumsnet reading all different posts and then I thought what could be done to better it.

I probably did go into a sinkhole with it and then convince myself that they weren’t terrible ideas.. I am glad I’m not in charge 🥲

😂😂😂

I appreciate that they are well intentioned ideas, I just think in practice they would actually make people significantly worse off.

Just goes to show how complex some of these issues are - though politicians like to make out there are straightforward solutions.

You’ll get flamed and ridiculed for this post OP but it’s no bad thing to sit and think about it. Your ideas are a bit wild and unworkable in my opinion, they don’t follow any particular economic principle; nobody would ever start a business and the country would be bankrupt fairly quickly if they were to be put in place.

Point 6 is a good one though. The NHS is a dead duck. It’s fetishised and treated like a holy cow that cannot and must not be criticised. It’s no longer fit for purpose and a world away from providing the services it was set up to meet because so much has changed since it was. It isn’t a popular opinion but it needs to be privatised and ‘National Insurance’ abolished so people can choose to pay for the level of service they need as they do in other countries. It’s laughable when the “envy of the world” line is trotted out. Complete and utter nonsense.

In line with that, the staff would become private sector workers who can vote with their feet and leave/move as and when they see fit instead of holding the people they purportedly claim to help and who pay their wages to ransom. This would be the best thing for them but they wont ever give up their seat on the gravy train on which they take an easy ride, as is the case with many bottom feeder public sector workers.

Never vote Tory. Or starmer's Tory b team.

I think the wages should be based on a system off age maybe.. so ages 20-30 you are paid between £25.00 an hour, 30-40 you are paid £35.00 an hour, 40-50 you are paid £45.00 an hour and so on.

So why would a business pay a 50 year old £45 an hour when they could hire two 30 year olds for pretty much the same amount?

Nobody will hire 50 year olds. The 50 year olds will not have an income, even one they don’t pay tax on, so what happens then? How much additional tax will the 30 year olds pay towards the unemployable 50 year olds?

If you’re 50 and can’t earn, how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost when the person who picks the grain earns £25/hr along with the delivery truck driver, a he baker, the person who works at the till?

If you’re 30 and have a baby, why would you go back to your £25/hr job when you’ll have to pay your 40 year old childminder £35/hr?

Unfortunately you can't help the UK. It's on a path of self-destruction and won't be reasoned with.

I'm a communist at heart & would like everyone to be paid a flat identical wage. And in my imaginary world everyone would want to work hard and just keep trying different jobs until they found something they enjoyed for the flat identical same wage. This wage regime plan obviously won't work, but we all have our fantasies, right?

Would be in more dire straits then.

Sorry but that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read.

Businesses have to pay £45 an hour but also pay 50% tax. Pray tell, how will businesses make money, how will they pay people?

Sounds like a one way ticket to a crash and mass job losses with only chain stores being able to stay open. No thanks

Also if there’s no minimum wage nothing stops businesses paying people £1 an hour

Everyone has to wear flares on a Thursday and you're exempt from having to work if you write a really nice poem and send it in.

You seem lovely @YorkshireRose777