AIBU to think a 2% wealth tax on the rich is unfair?

[Mrspepperpotpot]

i just saw an article and petition from oxfam saying if we taxed the ‘super rich’ 2% it would solve a lot of problems. They were suggesting 2% on anyone worth 10 million. Everyone in the comments agreed

I just don’t understand this mentality. High earners are hit at every turn. They usually use private health and private schools, pay the most tax, get hit with tax on savings, IHT, land tax, pensions etc etc Why on earth should people earn money to be taxed on it, to then be taxed on it again and again.

Why do people begrudge others having money when they’ve worked extremely hard to get it? Why isn’t there uproar about benefits instead?

I know this will never actually happen but the amount of people who seem to want it to is astonishing

Not entirely true. You can't live in Denmark as a foreign national without proof of 5 years prior residency. The helps with housing stock for people with genuine ties to the place.

If I was a UK multi millionaire and the gov was coming after me I'd move to the ME. I'd probably realise enough is enough and actually go to a place where I'm well treated.

Me to! If they ran the government well then fine but you can’t just take peoples money because they’re successful and done well for wealth redistribution. That’s on the government not on individuals!

Exactly!!

but thats the main issue, unless you run a govt as a corporation then society needs services, so who pays for those services, and when all businesses want to pay as little as possible, and the pop gets bigger then costs increase so at some point either everyone has to be around the same wages and income or how else do you fund a society that always needs more services,

if the whole society was more run for profit then hello old victorian times

Of course she does. She's been on here all day, tirelessly advising them to work harder at school, work their arses off, take a risk and become billionaires themselves.
Advice like that is absolutely priceless. Now we know that every single one of us can be a billionaire, just following those three steps, why, everything's solved, isn't it?

I don't think anyone can be a billionaire. But I think barring health issues for yourself or for family you care for, an able bodied individual can be self sufficient.

A single person on NMW used to be able to be self sufficient. No top ups needed.
Now, it is impossible. A single person on NMW can't expect more than an HMO now.

A single person on a NMW should be able to afford a life worth living without living in grotty bedsits/HMOs. They are doing jobs that need doing, but are expected to live in poverty.

This is laughable the stress levels of higher paid jobs the hours - no summers off! Don’t make me laugh so hard. You’re delusional. Give me your job any day

Entrepreneurs work 60 hours a week on average don't they?

Either way, whether or not they should pay more doesn't change the fact a lot of people seem awfully entitled to the money of others.

The rich don't pay a similar proprtion of their wealth to the rest of us- that is the whole argument- just because someone i "good at making money" doesn't mean they should pay a smaller proportion of it in tax.

My husband works way more hours than me and in a much more stressful job than mine. I deserve what I get paid (little ) and he deserves the high pay he gets. Don’t generalise! You could have been a CEO or anything If you had the skills and character and will do so so. I didn’t and also became a teacher but I’m under no illusion that what I do is harder than what my husband does!

Tax as a proportion of pay is irrelevant unless you also consider benefits received. By that measure the rich pay a much bigger proportion (though it is probably the middle who are the worst off).

Again not true.

I know four people in the £20m+ category.

All of them set up IT companies in the 80s and then sold them after decades of long hours and hard work. None of them had inherited wealth. One of them was raised by a single mum. The others were normal, middle class.

I work 60+ hours a week as a teacher! Most of the hours I do are writing policy, liaising with EPs and the local authority, meeting parents, meeting SLT, doing research, responding to queries, updating individual plans, leading training, running SEND monitoring and reviews, attending SEND events/evenings at school. And that’s before we get to my teaching timetable, where I’m responsible for the progress/behaviour/learning of hundreds of children per week.

I also run a side business, because it’s far easier than my main job, and I need to get back some balance.

You are more than welcome to train as a teacher, come and join us. If you think you could do it, you should give it a go. You are welcome to spend a week watching me managing classes of 30 teenagers to see if you might be able to cope with it, I’m actually really good at it and really experienced.

We don’t get paid for holidays. Summer is the only time I really manage to relax.

You chose to go into teaching right, knowing the conditions and the pay?

I think you mean an able bodied person can work. The vast majority of jobs will never pay enough for an individual to pay for all their needs themselves because things like education, health and social care, support in old age are beyond the budgets of even the hardest working ordinary person.
And I'll ask you again, if everyone followed your advice and 'bettered themselves', who would do the jobs at the lowest level? The low paid jobs will always need doing, won't they?

Yes! Not a moan, far from it. Just a riposte to those saying ‘business owners work 60 hour weeks’. Me too.

Where you're well treated yes. However, look at the way the immigrant labour force is treated. Could you really ignore that just to avoid tax? And then look at how women are treated in these countries.

But you don’t do that during the quarter the year when you are on holiday.

Just another form of taxing those that work, albeit very successful, to support those that choose not to work.

Choose not to work.

Thank you, that's completed my benefits bashing bingo card for today.

I’ll be working this summer; I have 50 new SEND Year 7s who each need a learning plan/IEP. I’ll be compiling those.

It’s still a lot of money to them surely? This didn’t work in France, they just took their wealth elsewhere and I don’t blame them.