House prices and taxes

carolt

The White Horse, I hope you never get ill, or if you do, you get a doctor who is only paid 40K max after years of training - I'm sure you'll get the level of treatment you deserve

I hope the headteacher of your children's school also has his/her pay capped at 40K, so your children get the education they deserve too.

You get what you pay for.

StevieJ

The_White_Horse wrote: »

well, if BUPA has 46,000 staff it is creating wealth to pay them, and then they spend that money in the economy. without them getting paid and paying taxes, the councils would have no money to waste.

Also, shareholders get money in the form of dividends (or buying and selling the shares). again this creates wealth, rather than draining it from the economy to help single mothers of eight keep on the methodone, so they don't slip back into taking heroin.

How much do the Bank chiefs get paid? I wouln't trust them to run the local LA
Then again most of them work for the govt now.

benood

Phew if the posters on this thread are representative of the population at large we'll soon all be as well off as everyone in the Soviet block was during the 1980s.

Still they were equally well off (except the KGB, politburo and party bigwigs of course) better get my name down for a trabbie asap.

carolt

Frankly, it's the luicrous mantra of "private good, public bad" that's got us into this stupid mess.

PFI, consultants airlifted in paid many times what any civil servant is yet with no knowledge of the sector, everything contracted out at greater expense.

Has privatising the railways made them work cheaper or better?

Has privatising anything actually made it work cheaper or better?

The idea that a universe where there was no state would be heaven is ludicrous. I don't want to go back to some kind of Victorian Britain where children are expected to work, education and healthcare are only for the rich and the poor rely on private charity or die.

Our society undeniably has huge problems.

But your ideal is far, far worse.

benood

carolt wrote: »

Our society undeniably has huge problems.

But your ideal is far, far worse.

Try telling that to someone who was in the Gulag.

Do you seriously believe that BT is no better now than in 1987? What is crucial and makes a market economy work better than a command economy is the element of competition - where there is no competition there is no incentive to improve.

FWIW in my opinion Education and the NHS do a fair job on the whole, within the constraints imposed.

However, local government is a muddle. For instance here's what my council does:
Abandoned vehicles;Abnormal loads (road transport);Accident prevention;Accidents at work;Acupuncture (licensing);Adoption;Adult and community education;Adult and community education centres;Advertising hoardings;After school care;Air pollution;Alcohol use and abuse;Allotments;Amusements (licensing);Ancient monuments;Angling;Animal fouling;Animal health;Animal licences;Animal nuisance;Animal rights and welfare;Animal warden;Ant control;Archaeology;Architecture;Archives;Arts and entertainment venues;Arts development;Asbestos;Asylum seekers;Attendance and truancy;Audit (financial services and audit).

Wow and that's just under A!

Too wide ranging and unwieldy - I'd hate to be the chief exec even for £200k

Here's two things they don't do: answer the phone after 5pm, get me a cardboard recycling sack after one year of repeated requests.;)

carolt

benood wrote: »

Try telling that to someone who was in the Gulag.

Eh?

What's that got to do with living in a state with some public services?

Are you suggesting Britain is a Communist state?

Baffled.

Please explain.

StevieJ

benood wrote: »

Phew if the posters on this thread are representative of the population at large we'll soon all be as well off as everyone in the Soviet block was during the 1980s.

Still they were equally well off (except the KGB, politburo and party bigwigs of course) better get my name down for a trabbie asap.

What are you talking about? Just because some people aknowledge that public sector workers do a reasonable job we are suddenly turning into 195O's USSR. You really do write some rubbish :T

Cleaver

The_White_Horse wrote: »

exactly.

failures and people that can't work in the real world join councils. why do you think the ceo of BUPA earns 1.4m and the council berk earns 140k? do you honestly believe the council cretin could function in the real world and run a real business that needs to make money, rather than find idiotic ways to waste free money it is given? Of course not. The council berk could in no way run BUPA or any other company. The cretin at the top of the council is just the biggest cretin at the council. You have to have a certain mindset and be a certain way (a screaming lefty pc brigade moron) to rise up through the ranks of a council.

whereas the head of BUPA probably made money by streamling and running an efficient organisation, the head of the council probably has three meetings a day to decide which pants to wear, followed by a committee meeting about the coffee mugs followed by a debate on whether muslims are offended by pig shaped jellys at M&S followed by a vote on implementing some stupid new scheme in the safety that costs hundreds of thousands and ends up making things more dangerous. Finally, he will set some useless targets, for some useless people to fail to meet. council people are useless and could not last a week in a real job where they had to earn money rather waste it.

I enjoy reading and posting on this forum because people I think I completely disagree with often come up with such interesting, intelligent and thought-provoking points that it actually makes me question my own views on things. Which is one of the great aspects of debate and discussion and results in me learning new things and think in different ways.

Your post is the opposite of this and is a beautiful example of ignorance and stupidity. I can't be bothered to respond to it in any meaningful way.

beingjdc

Cleaver wrote: »

Your post is the opposite of this and is a beautiful example of ignorance and stupidity. I can't be bothered to respond to it in any meaningful way.

This is, in fairness, from the poster who has brought us such gems as "All scum are on benefits", and "There'd be less unemployment if more women stayed at home cooking like they're supposed to". :rolleyes:

Cleaver

beingjdc wrote: »

This is, in fairness, from the poster who has brought us such gems as "All scum are on benefits", and "There'd be less unemployment if more women stayed at home cooking like they're supposed to". :rolleyes:

I fully agreed with both of those intelligent statements though.