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UK: Excessive Austerity? Becoming like the US?

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  1. #1

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    UK: Excessive Austerity? Becoming like the US?

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    - I think you mentioned some issues on the other thread which reminded me of this article.

    Not sure how people in the UK are going to like being compared to the US - but as an outsider who hears stories from dozens of friends who have expat-ed from the UK and visit often, this is what I also feel is happening to the UK.

    Whatever the operative thinking, austerity’s manifestations are palpable and omnipresent. It has refashioned British society, making it less like the rest of Western Europe, with its generous social safety nets and egalitarian ethos, and more like the United States, where millions lack health care and job loss can set off a precipitous plunge in fortunes.
    Wealthy Britons remain among the world’s most comfortable people, enjoying lavish homes, private medical care, top-notch schools and restaurants run by chefs from Paris and Tokyo. The poor, the elderly, the disabled and the jobless are increasingly prone to Kafka-esque tangles with the bureaucracy to keep public support.


    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/w...y-poverty.html

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    Original Post Deleted
    That would be fine if it was a case of "all in this together". Unfortunately the target is the vulnerable while there are tax cuts for the rich. I am sure Easty can come up with an infographic of how different groups in the population have fared.
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    Original Post Deleted
    What do they say about statistics? If the top 1% have increased their wealth much faster than the bottom 50% then their share of tax that comes from them will also increase. What this chart needs is the share of the wealth of those two groups that is paid in tax.
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    Original Post Deleted
    What I am saying is that if, since 1970, the income of the top 1% has grown faster than the bottom 50% then their share of total income tax liability should also increase. I never said anything about the rich earning too much.

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    Original Post Deleted
    Because high income earners have a greater share of the income. It really is very simple. You are not turning into M and M are you?

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    Quote Originally Posted by hullexile:
    What I am saying is that if, since 1970, the income of the top 1% has grown faster than the bottom 50% then their share of total income tax liability should also increase. I never said anything about the rich earning too much.
    But then again Hull, you would expect that wouldn't you? People with money invest and have investment income, people not so well off are using their money to live and have zero investment income.

    So what do you do? Tax investment principal/income disproportionately? The investors would simply go elsewhere denying UK much needed investment funds.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ray98:
    But then again Hull, you would expect that wouldn't you? People with money invest and have investment income, people not so well off are using their money to live and have zero investment income.

    So what do you do? Tax investment principal/income disproportionately? The investors would simply go elsewhere denying UK much needed investment funds.
    Yes I would expect that, but when the top 1% are getting richer and richer while the bottom 50% are getting poorer then I find it hard to have sympathy with the 1% complaining about subsidising the poor. To me that is what happens in a civilised country. The trick is not to make the rich poorer but to grow the pie while redistributing it so that everyone gets richer.

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    Original Post Deleted
    Median real wages falling (this does not include politicians of course)

    Increased number of people on zero hours or part time contracts

    Benefits cut in real terms or just stopped

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    Original Post Deleted
    You can Google as easy as me. High employment doesn't mean a lot of those jobs are poorly paid and if real wages are falling. Rising absolute wages is meaningless, I bet they are going up strongly in Venezuela.

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