To think the problem with wealth inequality is that rich people don't know how rich they are?

[Neeroy]

Article in the Times today saying that people earning six figures 'don't feel rich'.

Because they are surrounded by six figure earning peers they are comparing themselves to people who have more rather than the 90% of the population that have far less. This is why the budget is poorly received in the news, because rich people think they already shoulder too high a burden when in fact compared to everyone else they still have far more disposable income. Even if they have to cut down on the number of holidays they go on. They aren't sitting in the dark under a blanket. Or only making food that doesn't require turning on the oven.

I don't think they realise how so many people have to live.

www.thetimes.com/article/1fb46414-8f65-436f-8f95-451d69626148?shareToken=8061d939633164c0dfbd805240c8e008

YABU op. A household say in London with one partner earning £100k/year gross & all the pressure that generally goes with such jobs, 1 SAHM and 2 kids really isn't rich.

I should have added a disclaimer regarding specific reasons for using a private school, e.g. SEN support, however even by scrimping some folk couldn't afford to send their SEN child private.

@HornungTheHelpful my point about model
villages was to demonstrate the relationship
between secure housing and productivity & how it just isn't a thing anymore....

When I referred to sick pay & zero hour contracts I wasn't even comparing to 40 years ago. I've not been in the workforce that long!

I can't seem to find anything about SSP data alone but zero hour contracts have obviously increased & I know SSP was more generous in the late 90s. Do you need data for that? And wage stagnation is a thing. Would you also like data for that?

I mean, you're entitled to your view, but calling opposing views childish is quite childish in itself.

Not everyone lives in London, though.

Communism is childish, as is the attitude of wanting what someone else has just because

I think that is objectively true

We want growth right?

@HornungTheHelpful I think I asked this already but where do you see growth coming from?

A very large percentage of the people earning £100k+ do, though - so considering their expenses incurred to earn that salary is reasonable if we are going to make blanket threads about how we are all rich and have the broadest shoulders etc etc.

I agree. But it’s also correct to say that some people worked harder and as a result now earn high salaries. If you were to calculate the hourly rate of a trainee solicitor in the City earning £50k I wouldn’t be surprised if they were earning close to or not much more than NMW. As a trainee solicitor on big deals I used to sleep under my desk. Other than doctors, I don’t know any other profession that requires you to work that hard.

You're entitled to your view.
Others aren't childish not to share it.
Alas there's never been a true communist country, due to corrupt leaders.

It's also correct to say that some people earning high salaries work nowhere near as hard as those on lower salaries.

Lower taxes = more industry and growth

But you can't lower taxes unless the money for services is coming from growth & again it's eluded us for nearly 20 years....

You cannot tax your way to prosperity, you have to go low tax to incentivise people to take risks

So what period of time did we have low taxes, a booming economy & great public services?

So what is the argument about young people? In the 90's literally everyone I knew of the same age was skint, scraping by, trying to make a go of it* What is different?*

lol, you don't think anything has changed?! Do you have any data for that? 🙄

I wonder if cutting corporation tax is a good idea. Ireland did it and tripled their corporate tax revenue in 6 years. They are now setting up a sovereign wealth fund. Income tax receipts up 7.5% in the last year VAT receipts up by 6.3%.

I think it is hard sometimes to compare directly because anecdotally things "feel" similar. For example my mother often reminisces about how she was a struggling student in secretarial college in the 80s, and it was fun being skint with and living in digs with your friends etc, "a great life lesson in budgeting!"

But my parents bought a 4 bed house in their mid 20s and my mother didn't work for years until all her kids were in school - then part time secretarial...

It's not really comparable to her children renting with kids, buying 2 up 2 down houses in our 30s, on much higher professional incomes relative to our peers. She's just like, see, you bought a house, it's still possible! Just like us!

I don't see how it will be possible for my children to do the same, without a capital injection from us.

I think you might be called smug. You are indeed lucky to have all those things, some people are very lonely - poor and lonely. And you've just made them feel doubly shit!

I’m a landlord myself I do not register my property as a business I am in the process of selling my property and I can’t not tell you how many times I have been told you could have saved, you will save this if you do that, you could do this to pay less tax

this is on a small property. I will have to pay tax on the earnings that’s it I expect to pay but I shall also gain from the property value increase

we can’t keep on expecting to earn from property in the way many people are as extra income and at the same time ignore that this has negatively impacted the housing market to the point that buying is out of reach for so many now

going back to foreign investment other countries have put in much tighter regulations and very high taxes for foreign investment (I believe it’s Canada in some area on nationals living in the country can buy) it’s utterly disgraceful the number of properties that are empty and sold within a year or two many by foreign investment

point one needs to be tighter and less foreign investment allowed too many properties sit empty and sold on with in a year for huge profits (aware this isn’t only down to foreign investment)

point two I am a landlord it’s an extra income and should be taxed as such personally as I don’t agree with it being taxed less I do not run through a business account so yes anything that’s an extra income and the business around rentals and holidays be taxed at higher rates

point three there is plenty of tax relief on investments that can be tightened up and some that can be left with lower thresholds

That old classic.

There will never be a successful communist country becasue the entire ideology is flawed.

I think a lot of women (yes, women) see communism as attractive because that is generally how they see a household should be run (shared money) but it doesn't translate beyond a family. It can never work, ever. And I maintain it is childish to think it can.

Who'd have thought?
Lower taxes increase tax revenue by like, erm, attracting business.

I can only think that people would rather continue in their envy politics than actually fixing the problem

People who think ¢260k household income isn't a lot even now might be the problem

Why do you resent working people earning £260k? What has it got to do with you?

Give it a rest.

We don't resent them. We find it odd that people consider it 'not a lot'.

Communism can never work because of human nature. People act in their own and their families’ self interest. Sure some people might want to work as a neurosurgeon on the same wage as someone stacking shelves but a vanishingly small amount of people - not enough to make a functioning society.