People openly stealing in Greggs

[Xraytime]

Whilst I was in the queue for a coffee, 4 different people came in and took several sandwiches, doughnuts and drinks.

They were not together.

I feel like Greg’s need to put every behind the counter, I can’t see how it’s sustainable long term.

I see this at different Greggs aswell but there will normally be just one person. Today was shocking.

or is it just the poor helping themselves to a few sandwiches that you object to

It's not the poor, it's entitled scum.

Or lazy and without morals?

Probably some of both to be honest.

I just realised my comment about being desperate was a response to a snobby comment about "ewwww..... Greggs food how gross have to be desperate to eat that rubbish" (or words to that effect).
If someone is genuinely hungry they won't care if it's Greggs or Waitrose.

These people my friend talks about are homeless. They have nothing. They draw a piece of cardboard across shop doorways at night for protection against the elements. She sees them every evening when she locks up the shop for the night. There's an alleyway at the side of a block of flats where the bins are kept. They shelter amongst those bins.

If they avoid tax legally I don't mind. I'd do the same if I earned in a way where I could avoid. Taxes are way too high in this country.

Yes I do object to poor people stealing sandwiches, it's simply not theirs to take.

The billionaires with wealth offshore pay less of course, but that's a very small number of people.

That will be at least some of the 200 families who are projected, on current trends, to own more wealth than the entire U.K. GDP by 2035. That little factoid is on the BBC as a study programme for teenagers https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zspttfr/revision/3 as well as in relevant charity organisations. https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/the-spirit-level-at-15/

That ‘small number of billionaires’ matter, and the extent of their wealth matters, and the extent of their outsized power compared to the rest of the population matters. And no, they do not do more work than the rest of the U.K. put together, what a laughable idea. I’ll laugh like crazy about it on my 12 hour understaffed and poorly resourced NHS shift on Monday night, with any colleagues I can actually stop to laugh with for 5 minutes while taking shit from the dementia patients shall I?

Some people on here need to stop pulling their forelocks and start thinking. Some people on here need to stop taking pay from those 200 families to work against their own people. I can assure you many young men are seeing the effect of those numbers if not the numbers themselves and it’s the reason why they are dealing drugs, rather than helping me and my colleagues.

@WaryCrow

So how are you going to get billionaires to pay more tax in the UK when they're free to move to low tax jurisdictions are tax-free tax havens? You can hardly take away their passports and not let them leave the country. Far better to reduce their taxes to compete with other countries to get them to move to the UK or stay in the UK and spend their money, employ people, etc here.

As an aside re shoplifting, a large Co Op near me has all expensive meat in large locked perspex boxes and some of the booze section is under lock and key and has to be opened by a staff member!

Others have mentioned it already including me, but I would say go look up Gary Stevenson if you want to learn more about why inequality matters for all of us

With regards to billionaires, tax their assets. Trickle down economics has been proven to be a load of rubbish. Many national governments are waking up to this and so there is room to discuss common taxing policies. They are not the saviours they like to portray themselves. There charitable vehicles are more PR than substance. We are better off with non-billionaire companies and businesses.

How does the UK "tax their assets" if their assets are in a foreign jurisdiction??

Obviously referring only to the ones in UK jurisdiction!
You will be surprised to hear that there is a movement of the super rich who lobby to be taxed more. Maybe because they genuinely care about society or maybe because they don't want a revolution.

One last point is that the status quo isn't working. We've given the super rich incredibly favourable terms in the UK for the last two decades and well......

Ha ha. No. Why should we invite more lords and masters here pushing up all life’s costs? That’s all searching for juicy foreign investment has done for us, much as it did for acknowledged third world countries in the 80s. Economically it is not the richest who spend most money and drive the economy - if it were why oh why has our gross inequality and increase in billionaires not made us all richer already. No, we cannot afford the rich. They are parasites.

Billionaires provide people with jobs and help fund innovation.

Before you can do that, you have to persuade people in government that there is a direct connection between wealthy industrialists, full employment and a better economy.

Sadly, this government cannot do that. They cannot get their heads around the fact that wealth produces wealth. Instead, they have increased employers' national insurance contributions, which increases their costs. It seems that the fact escapes them that if there are more people in work, the government will get increased national insurance and taxes.

Unless jobs are made available for the unemployed, and encouragement to work, it is unlikely to happen.

1998–2007: Labour's decade

200 families who are projected, on current trends, to own more wealth than the entire U.K. GDP by 2035.

And no, they do not do more work than the rest of the U.K. put together

You're mixing up wealth and income.

The medium household wealth in the UK is £293,700. Median income is £32,400. So median household wealth is 9 x income.

GDP is a measure of value created in a year. It's effectively the UK's income. That's different to wealth, which is built up over many years (or many generations) - by spending less than you make.

Income - rather than wealth - reflects the value of what you've contributed that year. That will include both actual work, and also getting interest/returns on money you make available to other organisations which they use to operate and create value (you're deferring your own use of that money so they can make value out of it). Capital gains isn't included in income.

You work for the NHS - that's great. The high value of your work is reflected in the £71.1 billion spent on NHS salaries each year (that doesn't include GPs or employees in the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England etc).

That's 2.7% of the whole of the UK's GDP every year going to the 4.5% of the UK population doing that work.

That doesn't seem out of whack to me. Especially given some of the value in our GDP does have to go to the people providing the money to allow value to be created, not only the people doing the work.

Tell me you have never even come close to working in macro or micro economics without telling me… have you seen Ireland or Luxembourg gdp per head as a consequence of the policies you challenge? Highest in Europe and close to top in the world.

Oh, slight correction.

We need to take government spending off our GDP before we can see whether we think the remaining money available each year is shared out fairly between working people in their salaries - since all working people contribute to that.

GDP is £2.56 trillion but government spending is £1.2 trillion - about 47% of GDP. Being spent on our behalf, to benefit us all.

NHS salaries percentage of GDP is looking more than fair.

I was in a Boots yesterday and saw security guards and a member of staff wrestling with a man to get his stolen goods off him.
He was an older man and I guess they felt they could take their chances with him.
He was obviously well known to them.
They threw him out and then he came back to get his carrier bag, which they gave to him 😂

The best part is that a good number of those scum will be here, in this very chat, justifying it by saying things like 'they can afford it','how are we expected to pay those prices', or 'well, other people do it so why shouldn't i?'.

You should be able to perform citizens arrests. I'd be all for that!

Any time you see this, film it and post it on the local town/village Facebook group. It won't be long before people recognise the person and shame them into changing or report them directly to the police.

This attitude is part of the problem, massive divide between have and have-nots and snobbery all over the show. Greggs food is perfectly serviceable and in many cases is vastly superior to the cruddy sandwiches you get in supermarket meal deals.

If you’ve ever actually been in one you’ll see the fridge full of freshly made sandwiches with loads of options. Yes a lot of it is crap, but not everything.

I’m in the position where I earn a “decent” salary but am squeezed to the hilt by childcare cost, fuel, weekly ship and mortgage like so many. Unbelievably I sometimes pop to Greggs as a “treat” as takeaway food is a bit of a luxury from anywhere let’s face it. I’d hate to think I was being judged for it.

Quote fail, sorry - the above post was in reply to one of the many “ooh yuck never mind the shoplifting you are definitely being unreasonable by going to Greggs!” *tinkly laugh” posters.