To think that there is no hope here?

[Taxed]

52.6% of UK individuals are reliant on the State (that is 35 million people). Only 47.4% are net contributors. How did we get here?

AIBU to think that the UK is now a declining economy that will never recover if this continues to be the case?

I am 49 and a high earner (just shy of the top 1%). My husband is also a high earner and we are thinking of leaving. We don't know where but we know we have to as the situation in the UK is getting worse not better. The only thing that is keeping us here is our son, who is still in secondary school. I am actively encouraging him to consider a future outside of the UK.

I genuinely feel that being ambitious and successful is not worth it in the UK. People hate you for it and want to see you penalised. They think that whatever you do to earn the money it must be easy and a breeze. That you are greedy and need to be made to pay for doing well. Just last week, I heard that the government might be thinking of implementing a charge, payable by high earners, to access the NHS. Everything is about taxing the already heavily taxed even more and few want to face up to the fact that this is unsustainable when you have most of your people relying on the State to live.

People complain about the immigrants but they make up a tiny proportion of 35 million.

I feel disliked for doing well and just can't see a future here and it is making me angry and sad. I believe in having a welfare state, in helping those who are in need but 52.6%? The country is on its knees when most of its people are in need. That is like a developing country not a developed and thriving economy.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm just tired, sad and have just about lost hope of enjoying life in the UK.

“They aren’t working harder than anyone else” - FGS….

How about smarter, how about they studied/trained for longer, how about they took more risk? How about they entered sectors which pay?

They're sure working smarter.

I agree. I am a labour/liberal voter and have been all my life. I dont blame this on labour, but a natural progression since the 80s, then Brexit, now all the right wing/left wing noise. We are actively looking to leave now. Our move has actually been prompted by the chance Reform will get in and the absolute carnage their lack of experience, policy or direction would unleash on the financial markets and in every part of life in this country.Turned down a job last week due to schooling, but getting it out there we are happy to move. I think it is also the expectation now, that you have to rely on the state, that work alone can't enable people to survive - that it isnt a net but a prop and that is only going to get worse with Ai and as the UK slides further down into decline and ageing population. It does seem endless. I have no answer to it, just I dont want my children growing up here any more. It is heartbreaking to have to contemplate that to be honest.

Honestly, because he’s open to debate, evolving and does a lot of community volunteering and helping anyone he can, which is a lot more than a lot of people do (me included).

I suspect as his education expands so will his views.

And yet students from Singapore love the rich cultural life snd the freedoms of the UK. IME they are often reluctant to leave.

To say nothing of the heat

Not much of an advert for the place, really

Humidity, not heat.

I do agree and I have no objection to paying the tax that I have to (which is a fair amount). I am just concerned that we will go bust as there's more money going out than being paid in. And also I do object to a fair bit of how and what Labour are chosing to tax and what they are spending the tax on. They also need to reform pensions ASAP.

I have no objection to tax being spent on those in need. I just think we need to reduce the number of those in need somehow and stopping importing them (however inadvertantly) would be a good start. Together with reducing Employers NI.

I am a pensioner and I have a very disabled sibling who has never been able to support themselves so I expect you would disapprove of us both.
We are an aging society. What do you suggest should happen to the most vulnerable in society?
You and your husband seem to have done very well out of our society though
I think you are being very unreasonable but if that is your attitude then yes please do move away.

Has the occupying Israeli government, promised you a stolen Palestinian home already? Ahh, what a life.

How much does your high earning do for humanity? That to me OP is the key question. If you feel entitled to be bitter have you considered to what extent your role contributes to society?

And please let’s not pretend that we live in a utopia where they most deserving are rewarded. Yes, hard work should be rewarded as a starting point but it’s not that simple.

How about they had the life opportunities which allowed that. Not everyone does.

For those who are saying the rich should just leave… well, how are all the benefits going to be funded? It will not be a compassionate society if the benefits system collapses because it can’t be funded. Clearly work should be encouraged, incentivised and rewarded so that more people are drawn to productivity, the number of individuals on benefits reduces and then tax revenues grow to support those with a genuine need.

Threads like this do just sound like that have nots complaining that the haves are not generous enough, but the haves can just get up and leave and take their money with them, which many of them are are doing, leaving the have nots with even less, and demonstrating the utter futility of overtaxing the successful.

How could anybody in their right mind write about moving to Israel at this exact moment in time when almost every news outlet is reporting on Gaza, and even those who were previously unwilling to are now describing the situation as a genocide.
Do you people really care about their tax burden more than a basic respect for human life?

People like you are part of the problem. Such entitlement and ignorance, the envy emits from the page. Just making things up to suit your narrative - where did the op say she “feels the need to keep it all to herself and shouldn't have to pay for things?”

Oh, and we’re top earners and don’t have private medical insurance and there’s nothing to suggest the op does either.

The problem with posts like this@AuntyDepressant, is it makes it all about the @Taxed and doesn’t focus on the very real issues that she raises.

Hating on a high earner for their perceived money hoarding selfishness, diverts attention from the bigger issues at play here… namely the economy… for whatever reason… cannot sustain the reliance on the state.

OP raises the very real and scary prospect that we are in an ever decreasing decline as a country… that doesn’t serve anyone of us… low and high earners…so how’s about a proper debate rather than just going for the obvious ‘boo boo, my heart bleeds for you’ narrative of many posters… who if they are UK residents WILL be impacted in the future. No matter what they earn.

deleted as CBA, I am just winding myself up x

And yet more return than stay because they've done serious degrees which their country values.

Ditto the Chinese. My niece did a degree, masters, PhD in the UK, but returned to China.

The Chinese students my sons shared halls with returned with degrees valued in China and other countries.

This. I’m from a solidly middle class background where my parents taught me to read before I went to school. Yes, I worked hard in school but I was facilitated in doing that by my mother who consistently prioritised my education including paying for extra tuition.

By constant a neighbour told me recently that her going to school wasn’t really a thing. She went but her mother was very mentally unwell her whole childhood so no one really paid school much attention.

So am I really going to stand back and say I am more deserving that her?

I guess each to their own. Years ago when I was an immigrant in France I dated a Frenchman who was always distinguishing between “les Français de souche” and “others” and it always left a nasty taste in my mouth. (Hence he became an ex.)

Which past of this causes despair? It’s just facts!

Most people have those opportunities but they need guidance to realise those.

Most people see me as staunchly middle class but I my background is solidly underclass (not even working class). I knew far more people growing up who had been to jail than uni.

But my broke, poverty stricken parents had aspirations they passed to their kids. So most did well. It starts at home but too many people’s homes are failing them.

I read last week 16500 billionaires and multi millionaires have already decamped from the UK, money first, businesses, then homes.

That's an awful lot of taxable income.

A lot of those claiming will be working full time on minimum wage. Carers, retail staff, cleaners. Do you really believe that the wealth gap between you and them should be even bigger? Can you honestly say you work so much harder than them that a larger wealth gap is justified? Wealthy people aren't hated, they're just not given unwarranted sympathy.