To think we are becoming a much poorer country?

[Felixss]

I keep seeing on threads increase taxes on the rich , increase salaries, increase nhs spending and increase benefits. People are acting like we are still hugely wealthy and everyone wants to come over. Poland is predicted to overtake us economically. I can earn twice my salary abroad and I'm thinking of leaving. Where is the money going to come from with a shrinking work force and low investment in new technology? AIBU to think the UK is hugely declining ?

'The rich' always gets trotted out. Who? People earning £100,000 who pay absolutely loads of tax? Or who?

How do you tax wealth though? Genuinely curious how this would work.

My 60k job pays 200k in the USA, my dhs job pays 125k over 250 there and the exchange rate is shite. The UK is in competition with other countries when you are skilled its easy to get a visa anywhere. We need to be competitive to get the skilled migrants.

You can do very little on income tax. We need to tax assets more carefully and regulate business for the costs they incur. At the moment, we don't really do this. Which is why we have a lot of rich people in the U.K.

Yes OP, we are Royally funked!

The fact that a professional thirtysomething, a teacher or say a nurse, cannot afford buy a home of their own is just not good enough.

The social contract that we were sold in school about getting good grades, so we could get a good job, and then be good little tax payers, all in exchange for a slice of suburbia and a long haul once a year, we'll, that dream is over isn't it?

So what's the incentive now?

That's the moral principle in question. I think people are losing faith in Capitalism, but there isn't yet a viable alternative.

We live on a tiny little island, being governed by a bunch of Eaton educated fuckwits, who've never had a real job and who couldn't tell you the cost of a loaf of bread.

Local councils run by 600k a year village idiots, who are only interested in their next "green" vanity project -Hello Mr Drakeford!

What to do?

Who would you vote for instead?

The young wokerati, who care more about hurt feelings than economic reality?

The future looks bleak, and the current generation of young people aren't going to make things any better I'm afraid.

We're Fucked!

I think you have to start moving out of PAYE and looking at 'wealth' to hit 'the rich' and to me I think we are talking about multimillionaires in wealth terms.

I mean 100k is nice, and far beyond anything like my earnings, but as you say its just an income that someone has earned by putting effort in, in the right field. Its already taxed more than fairly as we dont have flat tax.

Its very different from having lots and lots of shares or inheriting lots and lots of properties.

I dont know how we tax wealth not income without everyone just putting their wealth somwhere else though.

I'm an ex pat and the UK is definitely getting poorer and it's pretty obvious from outside, when I come back to visit the country looks knackered, the clothes which are in shops are lower quality than in the past etc

From the outside looking in, the calls for higher taxes aren't encouraging me to rush back. I know more and more of former colleagues who are leaving the UK or have just left, four this year alone.

While some of you want to increase taxes on higher earners it won't give you the money you want to pay for more benefits if the people earning that money have gone overseas.

What resources are they hoarding? Lots of grain and coal? Or woodland? Or manufacturing equipment? Or lorries of tinned beans? Are they hiding it so we cant use it?

I wasn't taught this at school. Please tell me more. What university do I need to study at to learn more about how rich people plunder from the population and get away with paying a mere 45% tax?

It's swings and roundabouts.

You can always compare yourself to another country where you'd be better off and another where you wouldn't.

They are complex issues.

You could try and move to the US if you wanted but then they also have a lot of things going on that we in the UK do not and that I wouldn't want to be part of.

The annual leave, maternity leave, workers rights etc in the US is not in any way comparable to here. Gun ownership, death penalty, abortion rights, ridiculous charges for healthcare, crime and school shootings etc are very, very different.

It's also not as easy as some people think to emigrate and relocate or get visas. You may think the US and other countries are desperate to have you but it's likely not as easy as you think it is.

You might think the UK is the asshole of the world or whatever and no-one wants to be here but that's not supported by the numerous people who want to come here legally or on an 'illegal' boat from another European country.

It's already been disproven with more recent growth forecasts.

yep. more poverty for most people I know compared to 10 or so years ago pre-tories / pre-brexit

Yes. The next 10-20 years are going to hugely difficult.

I would say this is very dependent in the field you're in. In my field, UK salaries have never been higher and there's certainly no mass exodus of highly talented individuals. They can virtually name their price.

@Bluebellwood129 what is your field, are you able to say? just curious!

Yes. But people knew this would be the outcome when and they voted for Brexit so we are where we are.

It's a healthcare/pharma/biotech-related field.

Yes. We've had 13 years of mismanagement starting with Cameron's 'austerity' that wrecked public services. It'll take a long time to fix and God help us if the useless Tories get back in.

The birth rate is declining because people can't afford more kids;as the government has stopped people claiming child benefit and tax credits for more than 2 kids people can't afford to have anymore;it's plain wrong that the majority of people can't afford to have children with being able to claim these benefits in the first place.

I know lots of people who have stopped at one child too because of spiralling costs.

@Duckingella i agree completely - why have kids when you can’t even buy a house or pay childcare? It’s so sad

What resources are they hoarding?

Money. Because we (capitalism) have made it a proxy for:

Lots of grain and coal? Or woodland? Or manufacturing equipment? Or lorries of tinned beans? Are they hiding it so we cant use it?

Bluntly, yes.

Maybe people already pay 45%+ once you take into account NI and other deductions it's close to 50%.

Where's the incentive to work if you just keep increasing tax; highly suspect that public services will not catch up as quickly if at all!

Umm so this money, is it being kept under a mattress or invested in shares in companies creating jobs or saved in banks and then lent out to businesses and people buying houses?

How exactly is investing hoarding?

The West is in decline I’m afraid. You’ve only got to look at the US to see what’s in store. Society has been breaking down for years, the pandemic just escalated everything.

The aging population is going to be a huge issue for few decades and frankly we probably want to have immigration to help with it and make it more of a gradual transition
if young people willing to have babies are in short supply then immigrants will be able to pick & chose, they wont be comming here where no one can afford to have children

The nation voted to alienate us from international markets with Brexit and since then have voted Tory purely so they can save a few quid in taxes to spend on plastic tat from B&Q that they'll throw into landskip within a few years. It really is a shit hole of the worst possible kind.