Wealth is draining out of the UK

[Ifmenhadperiods]

I was at an event with business people the other week. One of the high net worths said to me that no wealthy foreigner he knows will stay in the UK long term. He is local but says anyone with foreign connections and wealth is fleeing abroad - and taking their businesses with them. That is the chat around his dinner table in Holland Park.

One indisputable piece of evidence I guess is the massive slump in companies that list in the UK. We also have so few pension funds investing in UK business. Personally I don’t blame them: my own shares ISA is invested in the US and has grown by 30% in the last year, a figure UK shares just can’t compete with. Most of our FTSE top companies are in legacy industries like fossil fuels while elsewhere they’re in tech and innovation as well
as traditional companies.

Several friends have left here and gone to the US in the last decade and they say the lifestyle is excellent (and they earn far more, working in tech).

I have also spoken to friend’s older DC (6th formers) and some who have had offers from Oxford and Cambridge are rejecting them in favour of Ivy League schools.

Apparently Ivy leagues are FAR better at getting students to think about their careers from day one. Oxbridge is amazing at teaching you the subject in an academically rigorous way, but Ivy leagues pair you up with business investors if you do a degree such as economics. They have fees assistance for households earning up to 400k US dollars. Here you can’t get student loans if you have more than about £50k in household income.
I know the fees are higher there but they also have more scholarships in the US.

We are about to tax private schools. A popular policy with the public. But again, apparently the wealthy foreigners who can afford this tax are worried it will shake out the middle class Brits they want their kids to go to school with! They don’t just want their kids to go to school with foreign and British super elites. They’re quite fond of the eccentric Brits.

It seems every way you turn, there’s little incentive to make money especially with the cliff edge in income taxation. And the worst thing is it’s understandable because of the massive levels of wage stagnation we have to subsidise through working tax credits (no real wage growth for 20 years!).

We don’t want immigrants but we have no one to pay for our massive welfare bill which is made up mostly of a triple locked state pension and grossly inefficient health system.

If you’re lucky enough to have a bit of spare cash, forget moving up the property ladder, owning a holiday home or a rental (tax hell lies in all those paths).

Can anyone shake me out of this pessimism? Of course I know we are lucky not to be in Syria or Afghanistan or Gaza. But this is about the decline of the UK rather than where we are compared to truly volatile or oppressive countries. I genuinely don’t want to emigrate but fear we - along with anyone who was once comfortable but never wealthy - are going to have a very uncomfortable retirement - if I make it that far - and our DCs will face a future in a country that will continue to get poorer, with the entrepreneurial class deserting us.

My children have reasonably wealthy grandparents (property wealth rather than milionnaire status level) We wont be seeing any inheritance at all because it will all be going into my childrens university fees/ house deposits. Fees that previous generations didn't pay, and house deposits that were 4 figures instead of 5.

Im not sure what your point is @DramaLlamaBangBang? You’re not benefiting from your parents property wealth but your dc are?

Oh sorry I think you were illustrating my point.

We had 6 fig help towards our house (from gps house).

@Pollipops1 I agree with you on the tax weighting.

I still pay tax. Every pensioner with an occupational pension does. As it happens I pay quite a lot of it.

Happy to pay more income tax, I doubt CGT will ever affect me and I have no problem with my estate paying more inheritance tax because I’ll be dead. It would depend what a new tax was.

Mine as well. DS had a job offer the day he graduated from a multinational accounting firm. DD is a stem major and will have her pick of jobs after she graduates next weekend. She's already interviewing remotely.

I think the UK has a lot of economic challenges and that education isn't a particularly significant one.

There is an issue with falling school rolls/birth rates, it’s more acute in London. It will impact education because of the current funding model.

Apologies....to those interested it's Hertfordshire not Hereford for the Google new build. If you search using info below you'll find links to BBC news. Sorry can't seem to be able to copy the link

"Google has invested $1bn (£790m) to build its first UK data centre. The tech giant said construction had started at a 33-acre site in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, and hoped it would be completed by 2025".

Your problem OP is that you think venture capitalist and the like create jobs and prosperity. They don't. They don't actually create anything. They are just vampires sucking the life blood out of the economy. It's true they can make themselves and a very small group of similar minded people rich but they are not good for the majority. The UK is in a terrible state because of all the people you think are the solution.

Jobs could be created easily - the government could nationalise key industries. Privatisation has been a disaster. Deregulation of the banks has been a disaster for all but a select few. If wages went up there would be more money spent in local economies creating more jobs which would generate more tax revenue. Keeping wage growth low helps only those at the very top.

DH and I are very close to retirement in the US, and our combined Social Security payment will be about $5k per month. We've also signed up for Medicare recently but are keeping our employer-provided coverage until we stop working. Medicare is fine, all of the healthcare providers accept it. And we don't have long waiting lists for procedures that you seem to have. I can get a non-emergency MRI booking in two to three days, and my wait for non-emergnecy spinal surgery recently was about two weeks.

The safety net here isn't quite as dystopian as many on MN seem to think it is.

Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022

Apologies it's Hertfordshire and i can't figure out how to attach the link. Here's the headline on BBC news...

Google has invested $1bn (£790m) to build its first UK data centre. The tech giant said construction had started at a 33-acre site in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, and hoped it would be completed by 2025.

I know it is alright if eligible for Medicare but what about younger people who don't have jobs with health insurance?

The rich always want something, off you and preferably free. Definitely off you, though.

Hence the moaning.

Google data centres employ around 100 people at each site. So don't expect many jobs after the construction phase.

That was what the 2010 Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) addressed. States now offer insurance plans available for purchase regardless of where you work, and they’re heavily subsidized depending on income.

My BIL is self-employed and has a plan through a state exchange. He had a very serious accident about five years ago and his expenses were fully covered once they’d paid the annual deductible.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than it was. Americans still have to pay insurance premiums even when their employers offer health insurance benefits-it’s never free!

Am I supposed to care op? The “trickle down effect” is a lie.

If they're low income they'll qualify for another government program called Medicaid (18.8% of the total) , or can purchase subsidized coverage on one of the Obamacare exchanges (9.9%). See the link I posted above.

Because we have low unemployment, many hourly wage jobs now offer health insurance. Additionally, many people have coverage from a spouse's employer even if they're in a job that doesn't offer it.

Exactly

The UK film industry is in a dire state, despite all the gaslighting press releases about how well it's doing. The last BECTU survey a month or so ago showed over 60 per cent of film and HETV freelancers were out of work. I haven't had a proper contract for over a year, and even then most of my colleagues were sleeping in their vans because they couldn't afford accommodation in the city where we were working. A lot of things in pre production at the moment will be shot in Poland, Bulgaria or Romania, so they may well have British actors and British money but will not be UK productions in any meaningful sense.

@DramaLlamaBangBang
Nonsense.
Unhappiness is absolutely everywhere

I am grateful for the NHS in many circumstances, but if you have good to great US coverage, the NHS doesn't compare. I had Kaiser and I miss it.

I do think the terrible headlines tend to be the ones people notice (either 'massive wait lists in the UK' or 'massive bills in the US'), so the extremes get amplified and become the entire narrative.

The NHS is killing people, we need to wake up and shake up.

I do think the terrible headlines tend to be the ones people notice (either 'massive wait lists in the UK' or 'massive bills in the US'), so the extremes get amplified and become the entire narrative.

That’s exactly what it is, @invisibleflamingos .

HNWs are always bitching about "leaving the UK" but very few do. As evidenced by a previous poster - it's quite clear they are staying in the UK and increasing their wealth. They know they're on to a good thing by staying.