AIBU to think Rishi Sunak is actively trying to piss off the entire country?

[Locutus2000]

Or does he genuinely not get it?

Every time he speaks he seems further detached from reality. His interview today was insanely out of touch.

Got a mortgage? Stuffed

Work in the public sector? Stuffed.

Rent your home? Stuffed

Live in a small town? Stuffed

Supported Brexit? Disaster

Not to mention the Johnson honours scandal and Liz Truss.

AIBU to think the only people happy are his fellow super rich?

A lot of authors? OK, we should definitely keep undertaxing wealth in case the tiny handful of people who make significant money from writing novels decide to decamp. I can’t see the richest of the lot doing that.

Trickle down economics doesn't work anyway. So what if they decamp.

In the UK, we tax income, particularly earned income, more heavily than wealth. This in itself carries the risk that people will simply work less, which is particularly a concern when we don't have all the workers we need.

People who say we shouldn't tax wealth because the super rich will piss off don't engage with the problems caused by placing such a disproportionate tax burden on labour instead. Outside of dipshit libertarian intellectual wanking, which is boring, most people understand that the tax burden has to fall somewhere. If we should continue to undertax wealth, which means a high burden on earned income instead from work instead, how are the downsides of that to be mitigated?

In the UK, we tax income, particularly earned income, more heavily than wealth.

That's because when you strip away the bullshit veneer of history, and deal in facts, English government for the past millennia has consisted of a bunch of robber barons who have made damn sure they're hanging onto their booty no matter what the peasants think.

2023 ? 1066 more like !

Even our much vaunted "civil war" was really just a load of rich aristocrats who twigged they could get a better deal without a King that was bleeding them dry. Throw a few words like "sovereignty" and "treason" into the mix, with a whiff of Catholic hysteria, and the masses will lap it up. As indeed they did.

To get out of the current economic malaise the Government ideally needs to raise taxation (wealth tax rather than income tax) and cut spending in order to reduce debt and get inflation under control.

That said I can't see any political party getting elected on a platform of higher taxes and lower services!

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy"

It’s hard to see how services could be reduced any further without becoming part of the third world.

Can you say more on the wealth tax, what do you think would be good? Ie how is it done, what’s taxed

I agree a wealth tax is fairer. It would mean bringing things like dividends, capital gains in line with income bands. scrap council tax & stamp duty (except for the highest band) & have an annual land tax based on value like they do in other countries. tax on second homes should be higher. I would also make older people working pay ni as younger people will be paying it until 68 as a minimum.

much more social housing run by gov as opposed to benefits going to landlords.

I work in the public sector
I don't think I'm well paid for what I do tbh but I have a degree of job security and reasonable time off. I don't feel stuffed. Well, no more than at any time under either Labour or conservative govts

Taxation will help. Getting some decent trade deals will also help. The Tories are unwilling to do the first and unable to achieve the second.

That's why they have to go at the next election if we're to have any hope of stemming the decline.

Another MP … sigh…

No most people in the public sector - not MPs- are much much less well off than under the last government

For example hospital consultants have had about 45% pay erosion. Yes 45%.

Has maths always been very difficult for you?

After the 2 days I’ve had, I can definitely tell you I’m underpaid! My pay has been eroded by 42% 😵.

Politics is no longer about not pissing people off.

Now it's about who can piss off people the least.

@Blossomtoes

"It’s hard to see how services could be reduced any further without becoming part of the third world."

++*

Well any proposed reduction in services would make any political party unelectable.

But if you did want to make savings then there is no point faffing around with cuts to education or defence or police as this is small money in the grand scheme of things. To make real savings you need to go for the big spending areas namely:

1. NHS - remove the free at point of use service to be replaced with an medical insurance model such as in Germany or Singapore for anyone in employment. Anyone not in employment gets a free service.

2. State pension age - more rapidly increase the retirement age to 67 and beyond. Get rid of the triple lock.

But these would be massively unpopular- just look at France.

@SunnyEgg

As @nameschangg described key areas would be :

bringing things like dividends, capital gains in line with income bands.
an annual land tax based on ALL assets held including main home, shares, investments etc
Capital gains on principle residence
NI for older people either working or drawing a taxable pension

Of course you would get squeals about an old lady in a million pound house unable to afford the wealth tax from her meagre pension or other complaints about asset rich / income poor people. But my view is you could just sell the assets and equally what about income rich / asset poor people?

I think getting rid of all the Tories will help. Their cronies cost a fortune. Ditto the billions of £££ they waste on bollocks.

It also means that we would become less of an unstable basket case on the international stage and may be able to attract investment.

@TooBigForMyBoots

Ditto the billions of £££ they waste on bollocks.

+++
What exactly is the bollocks they waste billions on.

Yes there was the PPE and bounce back loans scandal but they were only in response to the lockdowns that the majority supported.

Regarding the question how to tax wealth. Here are six wealth tax policies that would raise up to £50 bn a year https://www.taxjustice.uk/blog/six-wealth-tax-policies-to-raise-50-billion

Also regarding the arguments that millionaires would leave the country: Norway has a wealth tax. So far 30 millionaires have left Norway. That's a tiny, tiny proportion of the overall number of Norwegian millionaires. The vast majority are staying put. A lot of wealthy people want to do right by their country - and for the tiny minority which doesn't maybe they aren't really those who help a country thrive in the first place.

Brexit.

Oh and they're spaffing a fuck tonne of cash on Rwanda scheme and Asylum hotels, when it would be more beneficial to just process the claims, granting the people eligible to stay leave to find employment and deporting the rest. Like we used to do.

Brexit is also an operating as well as capital expense ... just rejoining the SM would be not just an immediate boost, but an annual boost too.

Thank goodness we're not doing that.

Hope the rest of the UK remembers this in the next GE. In Scotland, we fucking hate the Tories. Sadly the rest of the UK just keeps voting them in.

But sending refugees to Rwanda is an ideological policy. And as such cannot be considered to have a cost.

Remember, we don't do pragmatic in the UK. No country does, to be fair. But we really are zealots about our policies.