What do you think of the 5% tax hike for those earning more than £150k - good or bad?

[soapbox]

????

ohfgs, I am getting sick of the posters on here who seem to suggest that people who don't earn huge wads haven't put in the effort!

If we choose to work in the public sector, for whatever reason, we are bound by the payscales operating there. Bonuses and pay incentives and all that extra cash are for the private sector. Having worked in the NHS for 10 years, I can tell you that I put in a lot of work, some of it unpaid, and most of it ludicrously underpaid. And I am not unusual. But for some of you to suggest that I just wasn't "trying hard enough" is unutterably rude and patronising.

sorry mousehole, xposted with you there, mine was in no way aimed at you.

Happywomble - that's a fair point, but I don't think I'm contradicting myself exactly. The fact is that people who want to work their way to the top of a council (god knows I don't) are likely to be motivated by money in the same way as their private sector counterparts. And they might spend their time swanning from one meeting to another, but in fairness they are carrying the can for the council and the buck stops with them where public money is concerned. If £100k is what it takes to hire and retain them (and I'm talking about a huge authority like Essex not some piddling district council) then I guess that's what's needed. I think my point is that it shouldn't be at the expense of people like me who earn less than a fifth that amount.

"Heads of councils do not study for years to get professional qualifications like doctors do they?" No they don't, but then neither do bankers or retail managers or many other people earning vastly more than £100k a year. And there are many people in councils who do study for years for professional qualifications who earn truly pitiful amounts. In fact, in job evaluation the need for a degree or other professional qualifications isn't even a criterion as that would be "elitist"!

Thankfully thumbwitch not all of us are motivated by wads of dosh and access to high mortgages.

I can't decide what is more revolting; the implication that high earners work harder than everybody else or the idea that their high mortgages mean that they are quite poor really in terms of disposable income dontcha know.

Blimey twinkle3869 - calm down. I'm sure you will be greatly missed if you emigrate. But let's face it, it's not going to happen because of the 45% tax band is it?

I agree with you Beachcomber!

What a fun thread. The differences between people are very amusing.
Of course most higher earners work longer hours. I was at my desk at 6.15am today and now it's 10.50pm and I'm going to bed now. Obviously I've eaten and I've put children to bed but it's 17 hours approx, not unsual and people work through the night, was talking to someone in business last week in Amsterdam about the day or days when he did 48 hours without a break. Most high earners do work harder.

Also those of us who "need" the disposal income to pay expenses etc (and ex husbands) don't have quite the flexiblity of those who can put the money aside but I accept everyone on here could move to a rented studio flat and woudl still be immeasurably better off than the average Zimbabwean so it's all relative. People will always be jealous of others and nothing brings that to the fore more than threads about high rates of tax. Today's FT which I was just reading suggests it's unlikely the 5% etc rise will actually raise much revenue nad indeed it will be a disincentive. My brother's email tonight even illustrates the effect on people and him - the gist being no point in getting earnings over £100k if he would lose the personal allowances. He's actually wrong. If he could earn say £200k then losing £6k personal allowances is neither here nor there but it's what people think and do that matters more than what the reality is.

twinkle it is so kind of you to be so rich and to drive old people around to their appointments while your son is at prep school.

Oh fgs Xenia, it's greed - nothing more, nothing less. Would you seriously be working a 100 hour week or whatever if you were only being paid for the first 37?

I wish twinkle3869 had a different name...

Oh God, are we back to the 'people who believe in the distribution of wealth are jealous' argument?

Night all. I've got an interesting and fufilling job where I get to be my own boss to get up to in the morning. I don't think I can muster the energy to explain why my point of view has more to do with basic human decency than it has to do with envy.

Xenia, re the long working hours - your job, like the hedge funders etc, is your choice. IT is not a matter of survival that you do that job and work those long hours, it is a matter of lifestyle choice. Like my job. However my neighbour, a widow from nigeria with 3 children, works as a cleaner, she is out of the door at 4am to go and clean offices in the city, she cleans all day, back home for 3pm to get the youngest kid from school then back out again for night cleaning at a hospital once her teenagers come home from school as they can look after the youngest. She isn't paying a mortgage, she is paying someone else's mortgage with her rent. She has absolutely no choice but to work those long hours or she won't be able to pay the rent, buy the food, or pay the bills. She could come on here and point out her long hours. You can too. But it does tend to make people feel a little queasy when you do it.

accept that mousehole.
its late and im getting pissed off, but you;re right, that wasa bit mean.

Don't worry twinklemegan - you are quite easy to tell apart.

Xenia, I wouldn't like to speculate on your motives for working a 1200 hour week or whatever it is you claim to do, but I do wonder what it is that drives you to keep coming on here trotting out the same lines again and again and again... don't you ever get bored?

yay mousehole! well said.

xenia what do you work as?

Average UK house price: £224,064

Average London house price £382,951.

As reported by the Beeb on Nov 17th.

Codicil: average house price in Devon £248,140, average salary around £20,000. You do the math, as they say. Although wealthy London Bankers always seem to be able to afford houses down here.

But Xenia admits she eats £2 chickens from Tesco. God, all the "hard work" for something as joyless as that.

urgh
is xenia real?
or (hopeful) is she pretend?!

what do you mean its a trap?