Could the government take personal savings?

Old_Slaphead

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

If the government feels unable to take Fred Goodwin's pension, there is no chance of it tearing up the rule of law and committing electoral suicide by doing this.

Get real people!

Gordon is master of spin and obfuscation. I wouldn't put any stealth tax measure beyond him.

He fooled the naive 'popular' press on the 10p tax rate (tho' he didn't fool all of us).

He's also got away with a £5bn pa raid on private pensions.

drc

But maybe the government is going to do it by stealth (yet again) as someone else has mentioned as the combination of quantative easing and inflation kicks in our savings will be worth considerably less.

Sir_Humphrey

drc wrote: »

But maybe the government is going to do it by stealth (yet again) as someone else has mentioned as the combination of quantative easing and inflation kicks in our savings will be worth considerably less.

I have said this before, but a lot of the government's liabilities are index-linked. This means they stand to gain little from high inflation, although inflation of between 1-5% would be a good thing for most people.

Rochdale_Pioneers

drc wrote: »

There was a thread on here a while ago in which someone mentioned the possibility that peoples personal savings could be taken by the government in a worst case scenario. Is this at all likely or even possible? Or is this extremely unlikely to ever happen? Sounds like something that would happen in Argentina or Zimbabwe, not the UK but could it happen here?

Perhaps it could happen here. And perhaps the Moon is made of cheese.l

chewmylegoff

could it happen? yes

will it happen? no, because (i) the political party that implemented such a measure would be knowingly destroying itself as a entity; (ii) politicians have bank accounts too; and (iii) in order to do it, the govt would first have to freeze everyone's bank account, which would be equivalent to pressing the economy's big red self destruct button.

bo_drinker

I caught a snippet of Jeremy Vine earlier they were on about the !!!!!! we are in and one bloke on there mentioned how close we came to the banks closing the cash machines (hole in the wall) There would be riots if that happened. I will try to listen to it on iplayer or what ever it is.

bendix

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

If the government feels unable to take Fred Goodwin's pension, there is no chance of it tearing up the rule of law and committing electoral suicide by doing this.

Get real people!

Precisely.

I can't help thinking that too many people on here have far too much time on their hands, dreaming up the most ridiculous scenarios.

Another thread talks about economic collapse and hoarding tins of food, and protecting vegetable gardens with a gun.

For goodness sake people. Take a look in your living rooms. You have televisions and dvd players. Your freezer has food in it. Your driveway likely has a car in it. The very fact you are contributing to this board means you have a personal computer and pay a regular sum to get online.

It's hardly economic collapse, is it?

We're in difficult economic times which might lead some people who felt they were rich 2-3 years ago to suddenly feel a lot poorer. The fact is, they werent rich. They were hocked to the hilt, and now they are facing a reality check.

treliac

bendix wrote: »

Precisely.

I can't help thinking that too many people on here have far too much time on their hands, dreaming up the most ridiculous scenarios.

Another thread talks about economic collapse and hoarding tins of food, and protecting vegetable gardens with a gun.

For goodness sake people. Take a look in your living rooms. You have televisions and dvd players. Your freezer has food in it. Your driveway likely has a car in it. The very fact you are contributing to this board means you have a personal computer and pay a regular sum to get online.

It's hardly economic collapse, is it?

We're in difficult economic times which might lead some people who felt they were rich 2-3 years ago to suddenly feel a lot poorer. The fact is, they werent rich. They were hocked to the hilt, and now they are facing a reality check.

Some common sense. Thank you.