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[Yasmine Lee]

if 50k is comfortably off. what do you call someone who less than 40 % of that!!!!

[Sir Tigger KC]

I've always found it supremely ironic that the Labour Party, an organisation that was founded to stand up for the common working man, increased the tax burden on the low paid when they scrapped the 10% tax rate! 

Yet we hear a lot of talk from the likes of Milliband and Balls about how the rich must pay their fair share.    Labour had 13 years to close the loopholes and get rid of the tax breaks that the wealthy and their accountants exploit, but did they?   Did they hell!! Why?  Because for all of Ed Ball's bluster, as an economist he also understands the Laffer curve, where if taxes are too high you actually collect less.  and don't forget he was Gordon Brown's right hand man for many of the Labour years.... 

To my mind the 'fair share' is where everyone pays the same percentage of their income, and that percentage should apply to all forms of income, whether it is wages, salary, rents, dividends, interest, lottery wins, inheritance, capital gains etc  There should be very little in the way of tax breaks or allowances and the tax system would be massively simplified by this. 

Thus the rich would pay more than the poor, but everyone would pay the same proportion of their income.  It would be fair and simple! 

[Rods2]

I've always found it supremely ironic that the Labour Party, an organisation that was founded to stand up for the common working man, increased the tax burden on the low paid when they scrapped the 10% tax rate! 

Yet we hear a lot of talk from the likes of Milliband and Balls about how the rich must pay their fair share.    Labour had 13 years to close the loopholes and get rid of the tax breaks that the wealthy and their accountants exploit, but did they?   Did they hell!! Why?  Because for all of Ed Ball's bluster, as an economist he also understands the Laffer curve, where if taxes are too high you actually collect less.  and don't forget he was Gordon Brown's right hand man for many of the Labour years.... 

To my mind the 'fair share' is where everyone pays the same percentage of their income, and that percentage should apply to all forms of income, whether it is wages, salary, rents, dividends, interest, lottery wins, inheritance, capital gains etc  There should be very little in the way of tax breaks or allowances and the tax system would be massively simplified by this. 

Thus the rich would pay more than the poor, but everyone would pay the same proportion of their income.  It would be fair and simple! 

I agree, which is why many of the world's richest and successful economies have a flat tax rate. Wealth created by rich people cascades down, so all society benefits. The ratio from top to bottom may be bigger but they are all better off. If you don't have rich people like in Cuba and North Korea then everybody outside of a very small, very rich, elite is basically destitute. The same applied to Russia and China with periods of mass starvation, where things were so inefficient they could not feed their populations. The only system in all of history that has created mass wealth and increasing living standards for all is the capitalist system. Pragmatically, that's why I've always been a capitalist as it is a proven system that works.

Anybody can join in and create their own wealth and success. It requires skill, consistent hard work and a little bit of luck.

I've zero time for socialism and the politics of envy as over time it makes everybody very poor as the UK is increasingly finding out.

[Nickbat]

Of course, any "soaking of the rich" may have unintended consequences for the lower paid. There are many who work in specific niche areas targeted at the wealthy.

For example, I met someone a while ago that specialised in high-end landscape gardening. He was not at wealthy himself, but was horrified at the thought of the wealthy being made much poorer as they were his source of income. Meanwhile, there are the Aston Martin & Morgan workers, shop assistants in the West End boutiques, swimming pool contractors, specialist furniture craftsmen etc., etc. They all rely on the top end of the market for their livelihood. Of course, there are, within our fiscal system, areas that are unfair and need tweaking but making higher earners much poorer merely to satisfy the envy of a few would be an economically unsound policy, IMHO.   

[albitz]

And anyone in any doubt about that should jsut have a look at what has happened in France since Hollande came to office.

[Rods2]

The problem is this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303345/Britains-debt-mountain-reaches-1-39TRILLION-equivalent-90-entire-economy-ONS-reveals.html

Once you get over 90% of GDP you are getting into the point of no return territory. Over the next four years the Government is aiming to borrow a further £338bn on current estimates, £175bn more than was in their 2010 plan! This will take the UK to 112% of GDP which is getting into Irish and Italian territory and we know the problems they have had. A bailout in Ireland and 7%+ 10 year bond prices in Italy. 

The 2012 borrowing of £98bn in the article is wrong as it includes £22bn Post Office pension fund taken over by the Government with over £30bn of future liabilities, without that the borrowing comes in at £119.9bn, just £100m less than 2011, and this was only achieved by delaying some department payments, for political reasons to show a reduction on the year before, again flattering this year! 

How is the UK going to get out of this mess, bearing in mind the new UK carbon trading scheme is making it even less attractive for heavy industry. An oil refinery at Coldston closed last year due to this with more high energy industries to follow and with electricity brown outs expected anytime soon, which will affect industry and industrial output? Anybody got any suggestions? 

[Webby the Bear]

What do you class as wealthy? I suspect a lot of people consider anyone with a pre-tax income over £50k 'wealthy'..

That's merely comfortably off . I imagine that quite a few of us here at OOF earn significantly more than that.

By wealthy, I mean individuals and corporations who are so well off they don't  play by the same rules as "us plebeians"

Where can I get a job that earns this  poor bear 

[Vamps]

What do you class as wealthy? I suspect a lot of people consider anyone with a pre-tax income over £50k 'wealthy'..

That's merely comfortably off . I imagine that quite a few of us here at OOF earn significantly more than that.
By wealthy, I mean individuals and corporations who are so well off they don't  play by the same rules as "us plebeians"

Do you read the posts on here?.........