Are we rich?

[Sheepy]

That made me laugh, the list of Government cock ups are almost endless. Now they have decided they don't want to hear public opinion any longer because it could be controlled via Russia, so instead they have reverted to we know what is best for you, which is about where we started.

[Borchester]

I was just listening to Sky pundits as they pontificated on the News headlines and while discussing the decision to help feed needy kids for the summer one mentioned the well used phrase ...'as one of the richest countries...' Are we? We must have debt coming out of our ears by now and surely it will take a while to clear it. There is talk of furloughed staff being sacked/made redundant once their government pay stops. Other employers have mooted repaying the government in the future. Certainly the property market is throwing tax back into the coffers, but that can't match what we are paying out.

I guess it is all relative, how many Politicians over the last say 50 years can hold their hand up and say we made the UK a better place for our being there, I get the feeling you could count them on one hand.

A lot could have said they tried. The problem is that governments are like anyone else who tries to lend a helping hand, they mean well but the best thing they can do is to get out of the way. But governments aren't very good at that so we have lots of kind hearted and ineffectual interference in our lives that is best ignored.

[Borchester]

I guess it is all relative, how many Politicians over the last say 50 years can hold their hand up and say we made the UK a better place for our being there, I get the feeling you could count them on one hand.

In my 71 years every time there has been a Tory government they have made things worse for me, my family, and my friends.

In my 74 years, every time there has been a Tory or Labour or whatever I done what I can to make life better for me and mine. The influence of government, for good or ill, has been marginal at most.

Governments are like churches. Well meaning but largely ineffectual.

[papasmurf]

I guess it is all relative, how many Politicians over the last say 50 years can hold their hand up and say we made the UK a better place for our being there, I get the feeling you could count them on one hand.

In my 71 years every time there has been a Tory government they have made things worse for me, my family, and my friends.

[Sheepy]

I was just listening to Sky pundits as they pontificated on the News headlines and while discussing the decision to help feed needy kids for the summer one mentioned the well used phrase ...'as one of the richest countries...' Are we? We must have debt coming out of our ears by now and surely it will take a while to clear it. There is talk of furloughed staff being sacked/made redundant once their government pay stops. Other employers have mooted repaying the government in the future. Certainly the property market is throwing tax back into the coffers, but that can't match what we are paying out.

I guess it is all relative, how many Politicians over the last say 50 years can hold their hand up and say we made the UK a better place for our being there, I get the feeling you could count them on one hand.

[papasmurf]

And mass poverty then of course was enormous.

It is rapidly heading back that way.

[srb7677]

I think it worth pointing out that inequality was at its highest ever in 1930, when thatcher was five

And mass poverty then of course was enormous. Which itself tends to demonstrate the link between gross inequality and mass poverty.

Of course after the war, the trend was for diminishing inequality and greater prosperity for all under the consensus established by the Attlee government - until Thatcher began the process of throwing all that into reverse.

[johnofgwent]

Britain is rich, (in part due to historic slavery), It is the 5th richest nation on the planet. However the wealth and assets are in the hands of a very few people.

That is indeed the problem. There is a lot of wealth in this country but most of it is concentrated into the hands of a few thousand people at the top whilst millions live in poverty.

The UK is inherently exploitative. The propertied rich get ever richer with ever higher house prices and are able and allowed to charge ever higher rents, whilst the rest of us are priced out of housing and made to pay those ever higher rents. The propertied elites are thus sucking ever more wealth out of the pockets of the ever more struggling millions.

Then of course we have all those inherently exploitative and chronically insecure zero hour contracts, part time contracts, fake self employment, and crap like that. And some people somewhere, of course, are getting rich off the backs of such exploitation.

So yes Britain is rich, but that wealth is only shared by a minority, whilst the struggling millions just get exploited.

This is what four decades of Thatcherism have done to us. It is time to establish a new economic model that works for the many and not the few. To bury the Thatcherite consensus and replace it with something much better, that works for everyone, not just a few.

I think it worth pointing out that inequality was at its highest ever in 1930, when thatcher was five

[srb7677]

Britain is rich, (in part due to historic slavery), It is the 5th richest nation on the planet. However the wealth and assets are in the hands of a very few people.

That is indeed the problem. There is a lot of wealth in this country but most of it is concentrated into the hands of a few thousand people at the top whilst millions live in poverty.

The UK is inherently exploitative. The propertied rich get ever richer with ever higher house prices and are able and allowed to charge ever higher rents, whilst the rest of us are priced out of housing and made to pay those ever higher rents. The propertied elites are thus sucking ever more wealth out of the pockets of the ever more struggling millions.

Then of course we have all those inherently exploitative and chronically insecure zero hour contracts, part time contracts, fake self employment, and crap like that. And some people somewhere, of course, are getting rich off the backs of such exploitation.

So yes Britain is rich, but that wealth is only shared by a minority, whilst the struggling millions just get exploited.

This is what four decades of Thatcherism have done to us. It is time to establish a new economic model that works for the many and not the few. To bury the Thatcherite consensus and replace it with something much better, that works for everyone, not just a few.

[papasmurf]

I think so . We can with a little effort be reasonably comfortable in the UK  and in a far better position than many elsewhere .

According to this very rich with very little effort. (Not pleasant reading a lot of the filthy rich paying very little tax)

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/bn27.2020.pdf

[Streetwalker]

I think so . We can with a little effort be reasonably comfortable in the UK  and in a far better position than many elsewhere .

[Good old]

I was just listening to Sky pundits as they pontificated on the News headlines and while discussing the decision to help feed needy kids for the summer one mentioned the well used phrase ...'as one of the richest countries...' Are we?

Britain is rich, (in part due to historic slavery), It is the 5th richest nation on the planet. However the wealth and assets are in the hands of a very few people.

Hence that's maybe why we always end up with a government that is at least Conservative ,to one degree or another .
The label used ,only ever seems to water down the degree of Conservatism exercised.
This may or may not be a good thing. But for those that call for change forget it . There isn't a main party that does not pay some homage to the wealthy few, which makes real change very difficult to achieve.

[papasmurf]

I was just listening to Sky pundits as they pontificated on the News headlines and while discussing the decision to help feed needy kids for the summer one mentioned the well used phrase ...'as one of the richest countries...' Are we?

Britain is rich, (in part due to historic slavery), It is the 5th richest nation on the planet. However the wealth and assets are in the hands of a very few people.

[Borchester]

I was just listening to Sky pundits as they pontificated on the News headlines and while discussing the decision to help feed needy kids for the summer one mentioned the well used phrase ...'as one of the richest countries...' Are we? We must have debt coming out of our ears by now and surely it will take a while to clear it. There is talk of furloughed staff being sacked/made redundant once their government pay stops. Other employers have mooted repaying the government in the future. Certainly the property market is throwing tax back into the coffers, but that can't match what we are paying out.

I have so much money I don't have time to spend it, so I bear in mind Churchill's comment that the best thing any government can do is to put milk into babies.I dare say that should be updated to Mars bars and Coca Cola.

[Borg Refinery]

I was just listening to Sky pundits as they pontificated on the News headlines and while discussing the decision to help feed needy kids for the summer one mentioned the well used phrase ...'as one of the richest countries...' Are we? We must have debt coming out of our ears by now and surely it will take a while to clear it. There is talk of furloughed staff being sacked/made redundant once their government pay stops. Other employers have mooted repaying the government in the future. Certainly the property market is throwing tax back into the coffers, but that can't match what we are paying out.

(shrugs)

Japan is at 240% of GDP and going incredibly strong. The whole austerity thing isn't relevant really - the problem is speculators/ratings agencies & Russia/China trying to knock out their competition.

We should pay all foreign debt, cross cancel any debts we can that we hold in another country & vice versa, and try to keep the economy strong with support for business.