To think rich people steal money all the time and that’s often why they’re rich?

[MyAmusedOpalCrab]

We hear so much about “hard work” and “smart investments” but let’s be honest, so many rich people didn’t get wealthy by being ethical. From dodgy business practices to exploiting workers, tax dodging, insider deals and straight-up corruption, wealth often comes at someone else’s expense.

Governments bail out billionaires while ordinary people struggle to afford rent. CEOs cut wages and benefits while pocketing massive bonuses. Huge corporations find loopholes to avoid taxes while the rest of us get squeezed.

Obviously not every rich person is a thief but AIBU to think that a lot of them are? That the system is rigged in their favour and they keep getting richer by bending or outright breaking the rules?

You reside on the Planet Zog, you really do.

God knows what your background is, but you come across as hugely parochial and narrow minded.

Jeremy? Is that you..?

Did none of those disagreeing with the OP read the article I read at the weekend about the way the tories fast tracked businesses their cronies were major shareholders in to provide equipment during covid? Not only did those businesses have no relevant experience, but what they did provide frequently turned out to be useless. For this, they were paid many millions of £s, none of which has been recovered. They turned a pandemic into a colossal money making opportunity for their mates.

Media coverage of boat people and benefit cheats are just a smoke screen to divert attention from the really powerful corrupt people in this country and to scapegoat the weak.

That is simply not true.

That’s what they want you to be upset about. Don’t look at the hundreds of millions of pounds stolen from the public purse, to buy useless, overpriced PPE or to give loans that will never be repaid…worry about the, relatively, minuscule amounts stolen at the other end of the spectrum by people who don’t have the power to deflect.

Yeah, that would be the simple reason why Reeves is nursing a GBP 51 bn deficit (and growing).

Just read Private Eye, you’re not wrong @MyAmusedOpalCrab there’s no end of articles about corruption. No one in authority seems to care - probably because they’re at it too.

"As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome'
Noam Chomsky

Certain wealthy families in the UK owe their financial positions to the slave trade.
To stop this trade in human lives, the UK government agreed to compensate these families, for the loss of their property, by paying money that came from the ordinary UK people through taxes from their own hard earned money, to the tune of some £20m. The debt incurred was finally paid in 2015.
Maybe these wealthy families should pay this money back with interest as they have benefited from it for so long, through education and investments etc etc.

For context the UK welfare budget this year is estimated at GBP 313 bn.

Knock yourself out.

I thought this was going to be about 2nd homes rented out as income at exorbitant fees pushing the market prices up meaning no-one on an average wage ever has a chance of getting on the property ladder, add that to it , but yeah all your points totally valid 👍

Maybe you need to look into tax fraud then because there’s more of those fuckers than people scamming a few quid on universal credit 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

Good news.

If you know said tax cheats, there’s a hotline you can call to grass them up.

Trouble is, you dont know any do you?

@mynameisx Parochial and narrow minded, more or less same meaning.
Are you from Planet Zog?

Congratulations!

You've successfully been manipulated by the media!

Now who owns the majority of the mainstream media?
Would it be poor people? Or the rich, I wonder? 🤔

Agree. Also a lot of the amounts quoted as being lost to benefit fraud are actually just what they've estimated. Benefit claimants are scape goats and are made out to be all fiddling the system.

Ahh... I didn't think you'd understood me.

What really got me, and still does are the business owners I know who took advantage of the schemes available during Covid. From those who said their staff were furloughed but they actually worked, to those who paid off business loans with free government loans. I worked for an accountancy firm and it just seemed everyone was on the take - then a year later were boasting about the free 100k they got from the government. The government promised to investigate the huge amount covid fraud cost the taxpayer - has anything been done? Of all the shoddy behaviour we saw during Covid, this was really low.

What about Mone, husband and their ilk

There will always be those who don't have two brain cells to rub together and will be far more upset about those who take hundreds of pounds rather than about those who take hundreds of millions. When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth, wealth becomes more concentrated.

Obviously not all wealthy people are corrupt. Define wealth too? A medium sized business owner? A big landowner like Clarkson? One thing that’s absolutely certain is that higher rate tax payers pay more in tax than all
the 20% tax take. They pay for the benefits as do other forms of tax. Getting more tax is clearly desirable via higher wages or closing loopholes. Spending less on welfare is also necessary. However saying all wealthy people are crooks is a step too far. The benefits people need them!

I believe 124 of our UK laws were not applicable to the late queen and other members of the royal family eg Philip's will is going to be hidden for 100 years ( because there are things in it - children we don't know about? deals etc which would damage his reputation?)

Charles is Head of the Church of England. Christ said 'it is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven'.

Do we think he is lying awake at night terrified that he will go to hell? Worrying about how to divest himself of his enormous wealth? Of course not. He doesn't believe a word of it - Head of the C of E or not. Ditto all the other very rich christians.

Or you could say people with a different opinion to you.
⁰

Tell me you’re a daily fail reader, without telling me.

Don’t know very wealthy people but I do know this most people who are better off than the average tend to spend their money wisely. 2 couples I know got married at the same time. Person A One from a council home back ground but university educated and did really well in the workplace. The other - person b from a more middle class family also did well in the workplace/university back ground etc. Person A spent over £6000 on her wedding dress person B spent £500! I attended both weddings and both were beautiful but the person who spent less on her wedding spent the rest of their money on a deposit for a house. Person A still rents…