Institute for Fiscal Studies Forecast Decade of Pain - Guardian

ruggedtoast

Does anyone have any statistics on how benefit claimants in the UK compare to other EU countries (total %age of claimants and money received) . I was of the impression that benefits are rather stingy here. I certainly wouldnt want to get by on them.

I used to work with a German guy in his late 20s who said that many of his friends in Germany had still never had a job. After they'd done their 6 year degrees they'd gone on the dole.

He said that if they had to get by on British benefits they'd be straight down the nearest branch of Reed.

bo_drinker

Generali wrote: »

The obvious thing to do with the NHS is charge for it. If there's no financial cost to using something, people will use it until it costs them in other ways.

People routinely go to their GP with colds and things like that. It's a waste of time and money. If it cost them, they'd think twice.

The problem is, the UK needs to save hundreds of billions of pounds, not just a few quid here and there. You can't tinker round the edges any more. You need wholesale changes and you need them now.

You've probably been asked this a thousand times, but could you see yourself coming back to the UK??

Generali

bluey890 wrote: »

Strange. The economists I have met say how can we make money from this trend?
The optimum allocation of resource doesn't usually come into it.
How to best allocate resource is usally covered more by specialist optimisation courses than economics per se.

The academic study of economcs is usually described as being the study of how scarcity is resolved. Most economists have an interest in money of course but then so do a lot of other people!

bo_drinker wrote: »

You've probably been asked this a thousand times, but could you see yourself coming back to the UK??

Maybe. Definitely to visit and possibly to work. I'm not sure I can see myself being based there indefinitely again.