To wonder why the economy, and people are struggling financially when the government could just.. ‘print’ more money to plow into it.

[RisenWhine]

I just find it absolutely bizarre that businesses, NHS, education, benefits, taxpayers struggle so hard when money is literally a man made concept that we print and just ‘decide’ how much to have? Just ‘print’ more, if we created money and let’s be honest it’s just numbers, numbers are infinite.. put more into the NHS.. put more into education..

There is absolutely no reason anyone should have to struggle with money at it just baffles me that the UK is the way that it is because of some shite we made up 🤣

Look, this is not the sixth form common room. Can we raise the standard of debate to adult levels please?

I don’t actually know what your referencing here😅 is that a figure of speech?

Because all animals are equal. Then, some are more equal than others.

Regarding printing money, were you not around in 2008/2009?

I don’t vote, because I don’t understand politics and I don’t like voting for something so impactful that I don’t understand.. then have the audacity to moan about it. I like to moan about the decisions everyone else made instead 🫶

why shouldn’t everyone be equal and treated as such?

How do you fund this "equality"? If hard work means you're not better off than someone who makes little or no effort, you won't bother either. No tax receipts and then we will all be equal - equally poor.

Good, you don’t vote. That’s at a least some comfort.

They are lazy.

On threads like this one it is important to not make these sorts of remarks. It is good that everyone with different ideas and levels of knowledge can chat and not feel undermined. We dont teach enoughabout money in schools.

Perhaps start a new thread for those who have a higher level of knowledge?

Slightly off the point but I once had this idea that to help the NHS it would be a good idea to have a massive volunteer service to do all the cleaning in hospitals, GP surgeries etc. That it could become a thing like the old national service ans that people wouls so 2 years cleaning hospitals voluntarily to hugely cut the NHS budget. I thought it was a great idea. But then I thought the downside would be A) how could you safeguard against ' bad ' people walking around hospitals B) would it put existing cleaners out of work C), and would the volunteera not clean properly. Its a shame coz for a brief moment I thought id saved the NHS budget🤣

George Osborne didn’t do much better when he was chancellor. He had a history degree I believe

When you say 'on threads like this one' what do mean exactly?

What do you mean by ‘not understanding politics’, though?

Never studied history then?

Somebody clearly didn’t study Nazi Germany at school and have the conversation around how the wheel barrow was worth more than all the cash it was filled with to try to buy bread 😊

Yes, because OP clearly thinks they understand enough to be able to express what they want to change?

So when you often find yourself pondering such things, why not just look it up? You’d get your answer very very quickly.

Because I can’t read 😔

Indeed. Weimar Republic anyone?

Incorrect. It is studied in history in the context of Germany / rise of the Nazis etc. pretty standard topic to study in schools across the U.K.

@RisenWhine if you gave everyone a £1k tomorrow in 3 months time some would still have £1k, some would have nothing and some would have more than £1k.
You can never make everyone permanently equal financially.

The best policy is to tax the very rich a little more and invest in education and health properly.
Equal opportunities will do more to relieve poverty than giving out money.
Also the government need to crack down on tax evasion and benefit fraud.
HMRC lose a fortune because workmen still take cash in hand.
In 2022 - 2023 It’s estimated £5.5 billion was lost in tax evasion and 81% of that was small businesses. And that’s considered to be an underestimation.

I’ll bite.

So you don’t understand politics, you don’t understand economics, you appear to have never studied history and you claim to have failed English and say you can’t read. You don’t vote.

What do you do? (other than dream of some socialist utopia which would very likely make you worse off)

It’s an interesting question OP. Here is a summary of a discussion: www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/08/20/the-government-can-never-run-out-of-money/

Colin Howell wrote: “but printing more and more money makes that money worth less and less”
No, that is the myth perpetuated by governments who want austerity. Spending (not printing) does not need to cause inflation.

Peter L. Jørgensenet al writes: “this paper presents empirical evidence that prices do not increase in response to a positive government spending shock. Instead, the response of prices is flat or even negative” (Jørgensenet, 2022)

Forbes magazine notes: “Does government spending cause inflation? [..] The answer, roughly, is yes – and in other cases, no. [..] Studies of the historical link between government spending and inflation find that the link is tenuous. [..] In particular, one study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve (see source below) found that government spending has little to no impact on inflation. In fact, a 10% increase in government spending may lead to a 0.08% decline in inflation. [..] Others have found that government spending around the world may have minimal impacts on inflation, often in the tenths of a percentage point.” (Forbes, 2022)

In their paper, Yash Moitra and Pooja Sharma conclude: “The overarching conclusion remains that Government Spending does not cause Inflation.” (Moitram 2021)

The Gower Initiative (Gimms) recognises that: “too much of any kind of spending can create inflation, [..] A little steady inflation is seen as ‘good’ and too much or little is seen as ‘bad’. When either the government or non-government sectors of the economy spend [..] it can cause inflation – but doesn’t necessarily. This can be illustrated by a brief look at the UK economy in the 20th century.” (Gimms
Sources
“The inflation response to government spending shocks: A fiscal price puzzle?“, Peter L. Jørgensen and Søren H. Ravn, European Economic Review, Volume 141, January 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103982
“Does Government Spending Cause Inflation?“, Forbes, Aug 25, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/08/25/does-government-spending-cause-inflation/
“Government spending does not cause inflation”, Yash Moitra and Pooja Sharma, International Journal of Economics and Research, Volume 12 Issue September – October 2021, p.30-42. <a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220120083755/ijeronline.com/Vol12%20issue5.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20220120083755/ijeronline.com/Vol12%20issue5.php
“Fact Sheet: Inflation“, 2019, The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies (Gimms). https://gimms.org.uk/fact-sheets/inflation/

Only if you are one of those who doesn't have much money now.